America

First published in English by George Routledge & Sons in 1938, America (originally titled Der Verschollene or The Man Who Disappeared) is Franz Kafka’s earliest, yet least conventional, novel attempt. The narrative follows Karl Rossmann, a naive sixteen-year-old European youth packed off to New York by his family following a minor scandal. Unlike the claustrophobic, nightmarish European landscapes of The Trial or The Castle, this book projects Kafka's distinct surrealism onto a vast, hyper-industrialized, and highly caricatured vision of the United States. Through Karl's surreal encounters with an eccentric wealthy uncle, corrupt mechanics, and a chaotic nomadic theater company, the story examines the isolating mechanics of modern capitalism and the elusive promise of the American Dream.

The mastermind behind this surrealist journey was Franz Kafka (1823–1924), a Prague-born German-language author whose visionary, anxiety-laden narratives permanently altered 20th-century literature. Kafka famously wrote the chapters of America between 1912 and 1914, drawing creative inspiration from the letters and real-life emigration experiences of his own relatives. Because Kafka suffered from chronic self-doubt and agonizing physical illnesses, he left the manuscript unfinished and gave strict deathbed instructions for his close friend, Max Brod, to burn all his unpublished work. Brod famously defied these wishes, preserving Kafka's genius and editing the fragments into a published book in 1927, which spared the author from a lifetime of total literary obscurity.

Translators Edwin and Willa Muir, who were instrumental in introducing Kafka's unique vocabulary to Western intellectuals, famously adopted Max Brod's alternative title, Amerika, for this edition. Appearing on shelves just on the precipice of World War II, this scarce British publication represents a pivotal historical moment when Western readers first wrestled with Kafka's prophetic insights into bureaucracy, alienation, and modern social systems.

Maroon cloth with black titles to spine in unclipped dust-jacket. Spine tips lightly rubbed. Lower corner to upper board bumped. Bookplate pastedown to interior board of A. I. Doyle. Scattered light foxing mainly to margins. Toned jacket particularly to spine. Repaired three inch tear to rear dust jacket. Minor nicks and creases to edge and minor loss to spine of jacket. Very good copy.