Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into philosophical here are some philosophical books from Czech Republic for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
Written during the winter of 1916-17 when Kafka was living in one of the tiny houses on Golden Lane (formerly Alchimistengasse) at Prague Castle, and published in spring 1920 by Kurt Wolff Verlag, the 14 short fictions comprising this volume are interconnected by a persistent exploration of identity, where even animals anthropomorphize into a new identity. "Before the Law," "A Country Doctor," and "A Report for an Academy" are among the most renowned stories he produced, and Kevin Blahut has rendered them in an English that is contemporary and fresh, capturing per... continue
A história de Josef K. atravessa os anos sem perder nada do seu vigor. Ao contrário, a banalização da violência irracional no século XX acrescentou a ela o fascínio dos romances realistas. Na sua luta para descobrir por que o acusam, por quem é acusado e que lei ampara a acusação, K. defronta permanentemente com a impossibilidade de escolher um caminho que lhe pareça sensato ou lógico, pois o processo de que é vítima segue leis próprias: as leis do arbítrio.
În ziua arestării sale, K. deschide uşa camerei lui pentru a afla ce se întâmplă cu micul dejun şi declanşează astfel un val de întâmplări care se sprijină, de-a lungul întregului roman, pe metafora uşii. Acuzat de o greşeală pe care nu o cunoaşte, de nişte judecători cu care nu se întâlneşte niciodată, conform unor legi despre care nimeni nu ştie nimic, el va deschide nenumărate uşi în încercarea de a lămuri această situaţie. "Procesul", piesă de referinţă în opera acestui geniu al absurdului care a fost Kafka, renunţ... continue
From the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial—one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century—the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Translated and with a preface by Mark Harman. Arriving in a village to take up the position of land surveyor for the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go about his duties. The Castle's original manuscript was left unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 19... continue
From its gripping first sentence onward, this novel exemplifies the term "Kafkaesque." Its darkly humorous narrative recounts a bank clerk's entrapment in a bureaucratic maze, based on an undisclosed charge.
A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover—these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.