The Judgment: A Story

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.8

Word count: 26K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Das Urteil: Eine Geschichte by Franz KafkaAuthor: Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: May 24, 2007

Editor's review

This short story by Kafka is often regarded as the turning point at which his style came into its own: brief in length yet extremely dense. The story unfolds around a trial-like dialogue between father and son; the prose is calm on the surface but charged underneath with pressure and absurdity, and readers will keep revising their judgments about the characters' motives and the truth of events as they read. As the German original, it preserves the hesitation, repetition, and cold rhythm peculiar to Kafka's syntax, making it well suited to experiencing how language itself generates narrative tension. This electronic edition comes from a public-domain digitization project, so the original text is easy to call up for comparison with translations or for research. There is no need to rush toward a fixed meaning; more rewarding is to notice the shifting narrative perspective, the abrupt turns of metaphor, and the blank space left by the ending. For readers who study German literature, research modernist narrative, or enjoy turning a short text over again and again, this is a piece that can be read repeatedly, with something new each time.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in Kafka and modernist short fiction
Intermediate to advanced German learners who want to engage with literature in the original
Literature students studying narrative perspective and the theme of father-son conflict
Readers who enjoy short texts and are willing to reread closely and take notes

Not a good fit for

General fiction readers expecting a full-length plot and a clear ending
Beginners with weak German who cannot yet read the original even with tools
Readers who prefer light, upbeat, emotionally driven reading experiences

Reading tips

Read through the German original once without looking up words, to feel the narrative rhythm and sense of pressure.
On a second pass, read closely alongside a Chinese translation, paragraph by paragraph, marking hesitations and repetitions in the syntax.
After finishing, write down your judgment about whether the father-son dialogue is true, then go back and test the evidence.
Read it alongside other Kafka short stories to observe how his narrative techniques carry over.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this work in the original German, and what language level is needed?

This electronic edition is in the original German. It suits readers with intermediate German or above who can use a dictionary to work through long sentences; beginners can read it alongside a Chinese translation and use the original as language-learning material.

How long is it, and can it be read in one sitting?

It is a short story, not long, and can usually be finished in one or two readings. But because the text is dense and ambiguous, it is better not to aim to understand it all at once; read it in several passes and take it in layer by layer.

Do I need to know about Kafka's life before reading?

You can read it without specialized background knowledge. Knowing about Kafka's era and style helps, but it is more effective to read the text first and then fill in the background, so that biography does not replace close attention to the narrative.

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About the author

Kafka, Franz, 1883-1924 Author

Kafka, Franz (1883–1924) is a highly influential writer in German-language literature, known for his absurd, austere and parable-like narratives. Through sudden transformations and trials set in everyday circumstances, his works reveal the loneliness, fear and powerlessness of individuals within family, society and bureaucratic systems. The library holds 12 of his works, including representative titles such as Die Verwandlung, Das Urteil, Ein Landarzt, Ein Hungerkünstler, The Trial and In der Strafkolonie. These works are concise yet profound, with restrained language and plots that often carry a surreal quality. Because public information is limited, his biography and creative background are not well documented in the library, but the works themselves have had a broad influence on modernist literature and later writing.