A Hunger Artist and Other Stories

Overview

Kafka published two collections of short stories in his lifetime, A Country Doctor: Little Tales (1919) and A Hunger Artist: Four Stories (1924). Both collections are included in their entirety in this edition, which also contains other uncollected stories and a selection of posthumously published works that have become part of the Kafka canon. Enigmatic, satirical, often bleakly humorous, these stories approach human experience at a tangent: a singing mouse, an ape, an inquisitive dog, and a paranoid burrowing creature are among the protagonists, as well as the professional hunger artist. The tales are among Kafka's best-known, haunting and compelling satires on the human condition, on art and artists, and on life itself, which complement his major fictions. Translated by the award-winning Joyce Crick, the book includes an invaluable introduction, notes, and other editorial material by renowned Kafka scholar Ritchie Robertson. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life. This volume completes an Oxford World's Classics set of five Kafka works, in distinctive complementary cover designs.