The Castle

(Napoleon, for example) and to fit it into a conception of “the right way” (whether right for one man or for all men). What Olga says about Barnabas’s letters is true of all the things in life that one examines seriously: “The reflections they give rise to are endless.” Or as is said in a deleted part of the story: “If you have the strength to look at things steadily, without, as it were, blinking your eyes, you can see much; but if you relax only once and shut your eyes, everything fades immediately into obscurity.”

As one who possessed both the strength and the capacity to keep his eyes open with unusual energy, animated by the deepest love (a love often full of bitterness and yet how tender!) Kafka, to use his own sober language, “saw much,” much that was never previously divined.

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In editing this posthumous work of his I have again followed the lines indicated in my note appended to The Trial, as regards both the material and the manner of presenting it. Nothing, of course, has been altered. Only obvious slips have been corrected. I have further introduced chapter divisions at some few places. The other chapter divisions were indicated in the manuscript by the author himself, and the subheadings in the Olga episode are also his work. The manuscript as a whole was given no title, but in conversation Kafka always referred to it as “The Castle.” For the reasons already given I have omitted the last pages; I have also omitted two passages of about a page in length, one from the scene between K. and Hans, and one from the Gisa-Schwarzer episode; passages of no importance for the succeeding narrative, and which would only have taken on a recognisable significance in the further development of the whole.

Max Brod.

Endnotes

1. “Whoever keeps on striving, him we may save.” ↩

Colophon

The Castle
was published in 1926 by
Franz Kafka.
It was translated from German in 1930 by
Willa Muir and Edwin Muir.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Robin Whittleton,
and is based on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
A City of Fantasy,
a painting completed circa 1850 by
An Unknown Artist.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
January 1, 2026, 4:00 p.m.
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