I guess we'll see if third time IS the charm.
I enjoyed Max Brod's biography of Kafka, but it didn't give me the details I wanted to construct a chronological bibliography of Kafka's works, which was my main goal. I didn't enjoy Neider's book at all, and it added nothing to Brod's book...though it did convince me that Neider was a very sick little puppy.
So now I'll see what Joachim Unseld has to say. The table of contents gives me hope, as it seems to be structured around Kafka's works.
Crossing fingers.
Shaking off the Neider.
Deep breath. Hold.
Plunge in, ax in hand.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,154) September 24, 2023
Read to page 33.
This is a big one: 394 pages. But UT looks like its what I've been hoping to find. Here's what I have in the way of A Complete & Chronological Bibliography of the Works of Franz Kafka so far:
"Heaven in Narrow Sreets" 1906 LOST
"Meditation" March 1908
"Conversation With the Supplicant" and "Conversation With the Drunken Man" May 1909
"The Aeroplanes at Brescia" September 29, 1909
"The Powder Puff. A Lady's Breviary" 1909 (Review)
"A Novel About Youth" 1910 (Review)
"Meditations" 1910? Collects 4 previously published pieces plus "Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys"
"A Departed Journal" 1911 (Memorial Address)
Not a bad start, eh? And I'm already feeling my love for Kafka reigniting...despite the thorough piss-drowning Neider gave those twigs.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,155) September 25, 2023
Read to page 70.
"He tried to clarify his existence through literature...." (54)
Looks like this book is exACTly what I was looking for with respect to constructing a Complete Chronological Bibliography of the Kafka Oeuvre. I guess the third time IS the charm after all...though I wish the second try hadn't been that awful Neider book. ANYway, I've decided to shove the Still Under Construction Bibliography to the bottom of the page so that I don't have to go back and assemble the pieces later. So there's that.
Speaking of books, here's Kafka's first--available for a mere $5,875.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,156) September 26, 2023
Read to page 100.
"Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy enough of it at every moment." (74)
Reference the fulsome praise of Max Brod and others, Kafka writes in his diary, "Valueless in their exaggerated praise, valueless in their comments, and explicable only as a sign of misguided fruendship." (96)
I'm enjoying this book. Its by far the best of the three Kafka biographies I've read. But for some reason while reading today I thought about abandoning my Kafka Project. In part its because the bibliography is so confusing. He held back from publishing so much...and destroyed or didn't publish so many pieces...that it just began to feel like an impossible task. Of course, only my OCDness makes me feel that I have to read every sentence Kafka wrote. His published works only total about 350 pages (with the raven), which I could knock out in two weeks.
Just sayin', sir.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,157) September 27, 2023
Read to page 130.
Had a thought whilst reading this morning: would Kafka have published anything without Max Brod? It seems quite possible that he would not have. Not only did Brod cajole constantly, he also contacted publishers, used his influence as a published author to get them interested in Kafka, and in general was Kafka's cheering squad.
Kafka was anxious to have "The Judgment," "The Stoker," and "The Metamorphosis" published together under the title of The Sons. He noted that there was a "secret" connection between these stories.
I don't know how "complete" this Complete is, given the nature of the beast, but at very least its a good starting point, I suppose. Though I did just try to identify the pieces in my WORK IN PROGRESS Bibliography, and only found two of those pieces in The Complete, so that doesn't seem like a good sign.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,158) September 28, 2023
Read to page 160.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,159) September 29, 2023
Read to page 190.
So...Kafka gets an "invitation" to read "In the Penal Colony" in Munich. " " because it turns out to have been set up by Max Brod, who said he'd only read if Kafka could come with him...and then Brod couldn't come. So Kafka goes and reads to an audience of 50-ish. It doesn't go well. Three women faint, and a newspaper review identifies Kafka as a "sensualist of terror."
Day 7 (DDRD 2,160) September 30, 2023
Read to page 220.
Kafka gets a letter from his publisher telling him Meditation has sold 102 copies in 1916 - 1917. Kafka's thought on this? "...amazingly high sale...." (191) Which makes me think of Krapp's Last Tape ("Getting known!")
Day 8 (DDRD 2,161) October 1, 2023
Read to page 250.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,162) October 2, 2023
Read to page 280.
Day 10 (DDRD 2,163) October 3, 2023
Read to page 310.
Which puts me into the Notes. Wish that I'd read them as I went, since its not much fun to plow through 70 pages of Notes, but that's very awkward with Internet Archive books (which you can't bookmark), so ill just put my head down and keep my legs churning.
Unseld refers to Kafka publishing seven books during his lifetime on page 293. I'm sorry to say that I can only identify five of those books. Hmmmm.
Day 11 (DDRD 2,164) October 4, 2023
Read to page 340. Wanted to get farther and might later, but page after page of notes is not all that much fun.
With a little help from a Note & Wikipedia, I think I've figured out the six books published by Wolff during Kafka's lifetime. I've put information vis-a-vis this in red in the bibliography below. I've no idea what the 7th one (above) was, though.
341 to 366: 25 pages of notes to go.
😶
And then 394 - 367 = 27 more pages of Other Stuff.
P.S. Read to page 352. Might be able to finish this book tomorrow, then.
Day 12 (DDRD 2,165) October 5, 2023
Read to page 394, The End.
Note 40 mentions a 1926 German translation of Swann's Way, about which a critic said, "It is approximately like having Debussy rearranged for the harmonica."
This was without a doubt the best of the three Kafka "biographies" I read...but I'm still left feeling unsatisfied and a bit confused. Even with careful attention to the text I'm not confident that I have a goid version of Kafka's Complete Bibliography. Which makes me less eager to jump unto reading Kafka, I'm sorry to sat, but I think that's what I'll do tomorrow anyway.
Unless I get a better idea.
Complete Chronological Bibliography of the Kafka Oeuvre
"Heaven in Narrow Sreets" 1906 LOST
"Meditation" March 1908
"Conversation With the Supplicant" and "Conversation With the Drunken Man" May 1909
"The Aeroplanes at Brescia" September 29, 1909
"The Powder Puff. A Lady's Breviary" 1909 (Review)
"A Novel About Youth" 1910 (Review)
"Meditations" 1910? Collects 4 previously published pieces plus "Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys"
"A Departed Journal" 1911 (Memorial Address)
"The First Chapter of the Book 'Richard and Samuel' - The First Long Train Trip (Prague-Zurich) June 1912
" Great Noise" October 1912
Meditation (1912) This first book collection is described as 31 manuscript pages. Hence the need for a very large font, which made it 99 pages (as noted previously). (1)
Rowohlt Verlag 1912
"Great Noise" 1912
"Children on A Country Road" (from Meditation) 1912
"The Judgment" 1912 (4?) Kurt Wolff 1916
"The Stoker" April 1913 (2) Kurt Wolff 1913
"Before the Law" 1915
"The Metamorphosis" October 1915 and November 1915 (3) Kurt Wolff 1915
"A Dream" 1916
"Jackals and Arabs" & "A Report to the Academy" 1917
"The New Advocate" 1917
"The Fratricide" 1917
"The Murder" 1918 (early version of "The Fratricide")
"A Country Doctor" 1918 (6) Kurt Wolff 1919
"An Imperial Message" 1919
"In the Penal Colony" 1919 (5) Kurt Wolff 1919
"The Cares of A Family Man" 1919
"An Old Manuscript" 1921
"In the Gallery" 1921 (excerpt from "A Country Doctor")
"Unmasking of A Confidence Trickster" September 1921
"The Bucket Rider" December 1921
"First Sorrow" Fall 1922
"A Hunger Artist" October 1922
"Josephine" April 1924
"A Little Woman" April 1924
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day
A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI
History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III
Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III
Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III
This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611
The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates
Peat and Peat Cutting
+
DDR Day 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages
(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol 7 days, 380 pages
(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages
(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages
2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day
(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages
(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages
(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages
(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages
+ 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.
2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day
Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day
DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).
(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages
(4) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages
(5) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages
(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages
(7) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages
(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages
FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days
(9) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages
(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages
(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198 pages
(12) Franz Kafka, A Writer's Life 12 days, 385 pages
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