A writer's correspondence and notebooks allow us to go behind the scenes of his exploits.
The pleasure of reading Kafka's personal papers does not consist in looking through his keyhole as in Léautaud's diary.
It is rather a reservoir of ideas, an archaeological dig in the closet of Josef K. (the antihero of The
Trial
) full of
“old out of order printed matter”.
Thus we can read his
Letter to the Father,
written in 1919, which even his father never read (Kafka did not send it).
To discover
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, who edited this edition, has arranged everything in chronological order, alternating letters and diaries, in two volumes separated by the summer of 1914. Because this summer is important.
This is the famous summer when Kafka noted in his diary:
“Germany has declared war on Russia.
Pool afternoon.”
Here the famous antiphrase is retranslated as:
“Swimming school afternoon.”
This placidity remains striking.
Do we not live in similar indifference today?…
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