''The Trial'' () is a novel written by

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influenti ...

's ''

Crime and Punishment ''Crime and Punishment'' is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal '' The Russian Messenger'' in twelve monthly installments during 1866.

'' and ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' ( rus, Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy, ˈbratʲjə kərɐˈmazəvɨ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly ...

'', Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative. Like Kafka's two other novels, '' The Castle'' and '' Amerika'', ''The Trial'' was never completed, although it does include a chapter that appears to bring the story to an intentionally abrupt ending. After Kafka's death in 1924, his friend and literary executor

Max Brod Max Brod (; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was a Bohemian-born Israeli author, composer, and journalist. He is notable for promoting the work of writer Franz Kafka and composer Leoš Janáček. Although he was a prolific writer in his ow ...

edited the text for publication by Verlag Die Schmiede. The original manuscript is held at the

Museum of Modern Literature The Museum of Modern Literature (, LiMo) is part of the German Literature Archive () in Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The museum won its architect the Stirling Prize in 2007. Designed by British architect David Chipperfield and constructed at a ...

, Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The first English-language translation, by

Willa Willa is a feminine given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: * Willa or Guilla of Provence (died before 924), early medieval Frankish queen * Willa of Tuscany (died 970), queen consort of Berengar II of Italy * Willa Brow ...

and

Edwin Muir Edwin Muir CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and wit ...

, was published in 1937. In 1999, the book was listed in ''Le Monde'' 100 Books of the Century and as No. 2 of the

Best German Novels of the Twentieth Century The Best German Novels of the Twentieth Century is a list of books compiled in 1999 by Literaturhaus München and Bertelsmann, in which 99 prominent German authors, literary critics, and scholars of German ranked the most significant German-langu ...

Development

Kafka drafted the opening sentence of ''The Trial'' in August 1914 and worked on the novel throughout 1915. This was an unusually productive period for Kafka, despite the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, which significantly increased the pressures of his day job as an insurance agent. Having begun by writing the opening and concluding sections of the novel, Kafka worked on the intervening scenes in a haphazard manner, using several different notebooks simultaneously. His friend

, knowing Kafka's habit of destroying his own work, eventually took the manuscript for safekeeping. It consisted of 161 loose pages torn from notebooks, which Kafka had bundled together into chapters. The order of the chapters was not made clear to Brod; nor was he told which parts were complete and which were unfinished. Following Kafka's death in 1924, Brod edited the work and assembled it into a novel to the best of his ability. Further editorial work has been done by later scholars, but Kafka's final vision for ''The Trial'' remains unknown.

Plot summary

On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K., the chief clerk of a bank, is unexpectedly arrested by two agents from an unidentified agency for an unspecified crime. The agents discuss the situation with Josef in the unoccupied room of his fellow lodger Fräulein Bürstner, in the unexplained presence of three junior clerks from Josef's bank. Josef is not imprisoned, but left free to go about his business. His landlady, Frau Grubach, tries to console Josef about the trial. He visits Bürstner to explain the events, and then harasses her by kissing her without consent. Josef finds that Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, has moved in with Fräulein Bürstner. He suspects that this is a coy manoeuvre meant to distance him from Bürstner, and resolves that she will eventually fall for his charms. Josef is summoned to appear at the court's address the coming Sunday, without being told the time or location. After a period of exploration he finds the court in the attic of a dilapidated working-class tenement block, at the back of a young washerwoman's home. Josef is rebuked for his lateness and mistaken for a house painter rather than a bank clerk. He arouses the assembly's hostility after a passionate plea about the absurdity of the trial and the falseness of the accusation, despite still not knowing the charges. The proceedings are interrupted by a man sexually assaulting the washerwoman in a corner. Josef notices that all the assembly members are wearing pins on their lapels which he interprets as signifying their membership of a secret organisation. The following Sunday Josef goes to the courtroom again, but the court is not in session. The washerwoman gives him information about the process and attempts to seduce him before a law student, the man who assaulted her the previous week, takes her away, claiming her to be his mistress. The woman's husband, a court usher, then takes Josef on a tour of the court offices, which ends after Josef becomes extremely weak in the presence of other court officials and defendants. One evening, in a storage room at his own bank, Josef discovers the two agents who arrested him being whipped for soliciting bribes from Josef, which he had complained about at court. Josef tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed. The next day he returns to the storage room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the whipper and the two agents. Josef is visited by his uncle Karl, who lives in the country. Worried by the rumors about his nephew, Karl introduces Josef to Herr Huld, a sickly and bedridden lawyer tended to by Leni, a young woman who shows an immediate attraction to Josef. During a conversation between Karl and Huld about Josef's case, Leni calls Josef away for a sexual encounter. Afterwards, Josef meets his angry uncle outside, who claims that Josef's lack of respect for the advocate, by leaving the meeting and romantically engaging with the woman who is apparently Huld's mistress, has hurt his case. Josef has become increasingly preoccupied by his case, to the detriment of his work. He has further meetings with Huld, and continues to engage in discreet trysts with Leni, but the advocate's work appears to be having no effect on the proceedings. At the bank, one of Josef's clients recommends he seek the advice of Titorelli, the court's official painter. Titorelli outlines the options he can help Josef pursue: indefinite postponement of the process, or a temporary acquittal that could at any point result in re-arrest. Unequivocal acquittal is not a viable option. Suspicious of the advocate's motives and the apparent lack of progress, Josef finally decides to dismiss Huld and take control of matters himself. Upon arriving at Huld's office, he meets a downtrodden merchant, Rudi Block, who offers Josef some insight from a fellow defendant's perspective. Block's case has continued for five years and he has gone from being a successful businessman to being almost bankrupt and is virtually enslaved by his dependence on the lawyer and Leni, with whom he appears to be sexually involved. The lawyer mocks Block in front of Josef for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons Josef's opinion of his lawyer. Josef is put in charge of accompanying an important Italian client to the city's cathedral, but the client never meets him there. While inside the cathedral, a priest calls Josef by name and tells him a fable (which was published earlier as "

Before the Law "Before the Law" (German: "Vor dem Gesetz") is a short story by Czech writer Franz Kafka. It was printed twice during Kafka's life, but is best known as an embedded narrative in the posthumously published novel ''The Trial'' (). "Before the Law" is ...

") that is meant to explain his situation. The priest tells Josef that the parable is an ancient text of the court, and many generations of court officials have interpreted it differently. On the eve of Josef's thirty-first birthday, two men arrive at his apartment. The three walk through the city, and Josef catches a brief glimpse of Fräulein Bürstner. They arrive at a small quarry outside the city, and the men kill Josef, stabbing him in the heart with a butcher's knife while strangling him. Josef summarizes his situation with his last words: "Like a dog!".

English translations

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It began in 1906. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division ...

, 30 June 1992, Translation:

and

, *

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1994, Translation: Idris Parry *

Schocken Books Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman Schocken as Schocken Verlag in Berlin, the company later moved to Israel and then the Unit ...

, 1998, Translation:

Breon Mitchell Breon Mitchell (born ''Bert Breon Mitchell''; 1942) is an American scholar, literary translator and bibliographer. He was Professor of Comparative Literature and Germanic Studies, and Director of the Lilly Library, at Indiana University. He was a ...

, . Translator's preface is available online. *

Hesperus Press Hesperus Press is an independent publishing house based in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2001. The publisher's motto, "Et Remotissima Prope," is a Latin phrase which means "Bringing near what is far". Hesperus Press has published som ...

Limited, 2005, Translation: Richard Stokes, *

Dover Thrift Edition Dover Thrift Editions are a series of paperback books published by Dover Publications starting in the 1990s. Thrift editions are printed economically and sold to consumers at a low price such as $1.00 to $2.50 in the United States, and £1.99 to ...

s, 22 July 2009, Translation: David Wyllie (2003), *

Oxford World's Classics Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. ...

, 4 October 2009, Translation: Mike Mitchell, * , 15 September 2012, Translation: Susanne Lück and Maureen Fitzgibbons,

Adaptations

Stage

* The writer and director

Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style known as "Be ...

adapted several of Kafka's novels into plays and directed them for stage. His version of ''The Trial'' was first performed in 1970 in London and published in 1981. * Israeli director

Rina Yerushalmi Rina Yerushalmi (; born March 1, 1939) is an Israeli theater director and choreographer. Yerushalmi received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2001 and the Israel Prize in Theatre in 2008, among other awards and recogn ...

adapted ''The Trial'' (paired with

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Malone Dies ''Malone Dies'' is a novel by Samuel Beckett. It was first published in 1951, in French, as ''Malone meurt'', and later translated into English by the author. ''Malone Dies'' contains the famous line, "Nothing is more real than nothing" – a ...

'') for a production called ''Ta, Ta, Tatata'' presented in June 1970 at

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart. Located in the East Village neighborho ...

. * Chicago based writer, Greg Allen, wrote and directed ''K.'', based on ''The Trial''. After award-winning runs in Chicago and New York, it was produced by The Hypocrites and ran for several months in 2010 at The Chopin Theater in Chicago. * ''Joseph K'', written by

Tom Basden Thomas William Basden (born 30 November 1980) is an English actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for co-creating and starring in ''Plebs'', which won the Royal Television Society award for Best Scripted Comedy in 2014. He was nominated ...

and based on ''The Trial'', takes place in modern-day London, with the protagonist cast as a City banker. It ran at the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...

, Notting Hill, London, in late 2010. *

Gottfried von Einem Gottfried von Einem (24 January 1918 – 12 July 1996) was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ. Bio ...

wrote an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

, '' Der Prozeß'', based on the novel. Its American debut was directed by

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( ; ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian Americans, Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the the ...

. * The writer

Serge Lamothe Serge Lamothe (born February 15, 1963) is a French-Canadian writer. Education He holds a master's degree in literature from Laval University in Quebec City. Career He was a member of the board and vice president, in 2005, of UNEQ (Quebec Write ...

adapted ''The Trial'' for the stage. Directed by

François Girard François Girard (born January 12, 1963) is a French Canadian director and screenwriter from Montreal. Born in Saint-Félicien, Quebec, Girard's career began on the Montreal art video circuit. In 1990, he produced his first feature film, ''Car ...

, his version of ''The Trial'' was first performed in 2004 in Montreal and Ottawa, Canada, and published in 2005. * Between June and August 2015, The Young Vic theatre in London staged a version of ''The Trial'' adapted by Nick Gill and starring

Rory Kinnear Rory Michael Kinnear (born 17 February 1978) is an English actor. He won two Olivier Awards, both at the National Theatre, in 2008 for his portrayal of Sir Fopling Flutter in ''The Man of Mode'', and for playing the William Shakespeare villain ...

as K. *

Jean-Louis Barrault Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage. Biography Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgundi ...

and Andre Gide adapted the novel for the stage, performed in Paris in 1947. *An operatic adaptation of ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

'' by the composer

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

was premiered by

Music Theatre Wales Music Theatre Wales (MTW) is a touring contemporary opera company, based in Cardiff, Wales. MTW performs newly commissioned works, alongside existing pieces from the recent past which are either neglected or have been unseen in the UK. Works are ...

in October 2014.

Radio

* On 19 May 1946, ''

Columbia Workshop ''Columbia Workshop'' was a radio series that aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1936 to 1943, returning in 1946–47. Irving Reis The series began as the idea of Irving Reis. Reis had begun his radio career as an engineer and dev ...

'' broadcast an adaptation of ''The Trial'' by Davidson Taylor with an original musical score by

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...

and starring

Karl Swenson Karl Swenson (July 23, 1908 – October 8, 1978) was an American theatre, radio, film, and television actor. Early in his career, he was credited as Peter Wayne.

as Joseph K. * In 1982,

Mike Gwilym Mike Gwilym (born 5 March 1949) is a Welsh actor. Early life Born in Neath, Gwilym is the brother of actor Robert Gwilym, son of Arthur Aubrey Remington Gwilym and Renée Mathilde Eugénie Léonce Dupont. His parents were the proprietors of a ...

starred as Josef K. with

Miriam Margolyes Miriam Margolyes ( ; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Mingott in Marti ...

as Leni in an adaptation on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

dramatised for radio by

Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi (born 5 December 1954) is a British Pakistani playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, and novelist. He is known for his film '' My Beautiful Laundrette'' and novel '' The Buddha of Suburbia''. Early life and education Hanif Kureish ...

. *

Sam Troughton Sam John Troughton (born 21 March 1977) is an English actor who has made appearances in ''Robin Hood'' (2006–2009), '' Alien vs. Predator'' (2004), ''Hex'' (2005), ''The Town'' (2012), ''The Hollow Crown'' (2016), '' The Ritual'' (2017), ' ...

starred as Joseph Kay in a new adaptation by

Mark Ravenhill Mark Ravenhill (born 7 June 1966) is an English playwright, actor and journalist. Ravenhill is one of the most widely performed playwrights in British theatre of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His major plays include '' Shoppi ...

titled ''The Process'' directed by Polly Thomas and broadcast on 10 May 2015 on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

's ''Drama on 3'' program.

Film

* In the 1962 film adaptation by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

, Josef K. is played by

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Born in Manhattan, Perkins began his career as a teenager in summer stock theater, summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway the ...

and The Advocate by Welles. * The 1993 film ''

'' was based on

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

's screenplay adaptation. Directed by David Jones, it starred

Kyle MacLachlan Kyle Merritt MacLachlan ( ; ' McLachlan, February 22, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning role as Dale Cooper in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire ...

as Josef K. and

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor. Considered one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for List of Anthony Hopkins performances, his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins ha ...

as The Priest.

Graphic novel

* A graphic novel adaptation by

Chantal Montellier Chantal Montellier, born on August 1, 1947, in Bouthéon near Saint-Étienne in the Loire Department, is a French comics creator and artist, editorial cartoonist, novelist, and painter. As the first female editorial cartoonist in France, she ...

(illustrations) and

David Zane Mairowitz David Zane Mairowitz (born 1943 in New York City, United States), is a writer. He has written radio dramas, graphic novels, and nonfiction books & essays. Mairowitz studied English literature and philosophy at Hunter College, New York; and drama ...

(adaptation) appeared on April 15, 2008.

Notes

References

External links

*
''Der Prozeß'', original text in German
* *

Herbert Deinert, May 1964,

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

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