Kafka Frenchified
KAFKA, Franz; Alexandre VIALATTE (translator). Le Château (Das Schloss). Traduit de l’allemand … Paris: nrf / Gallimard. [1947.]
8vo; Publisher’s black boards decorated in white, brown, and yellow after a design by Mario Prassinos, spine lettered in gilt, patterned endpapers with repeated pegasus design; pp. 255, [1]; joints and corners rubbed, a few small scuffs to boards, spine ends bumped; rust-marks to pp. 170–71, else internally clean and bright; a very good copy.
Second edition (first 1938) of this important French translation of Kafka’s Das Schloss (The Castle) by Alexandre Vialatte, in a striking binding designed by Surrealist Mario Prassinos.
Alexandre Vialatte (1901–1971) also translated Kafka’s Letters to Milena, Metamorphosis, The Great Wall of China, Amerika, The Trial, and A Country Doctor, amongst others, as well as works by the likes of Werfel, Mann, and Brecht. His translations frequently present ‘Kafka as if he had written in French’, thereby achieving ‘one of Kafka’s signature effects: establishing a familiar, realist setting for unnerving, defamiliarizing events …’ to present ‘a French Kafka who can accord with surrealist views and with la littérature fantastique’ (Hamilton, France/Kafka (2023), p. 54).
SKU: 2124929