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waveszz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
5.0
georgisabina's review against another edition
4.0
i find it quite weird that i almost hated the metamorphosis, but i almost adored the letters
mashedpotatoandsaladcream's review
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
this book was so long that i kind of struggled to get the end but i found natural break points within that just made it easier to get through. but when i began this book i was expecting a sort of romance that shows itself within the letters just from all the quotes i’ve seen from it (“don’t humiliate me in this way. one word from you and i would be at your feet again” or even “if i want the impossible, i want it in its entirety. entirely alone, dearest, i wanted us to be entirely alone on this earth, entirely alone under the sky, and to lead my life, my life that is yours, without distraction and with complete concentration, in you”.
but after reading it i cant fully say that he truly loved felice in the way he expressed he did. he makes multiple references in having read the letters of other scholars so one must wonder at some point whether he thought it would ever happen to him or whether his esteem refused to think of it but it makes me wonder on how much of it all was a performance because it really did seem like a performance at times. the problem with seeing the muses of literary figures is that muses (to me) are never meant to last(?) or to even fully be authentic emotions (i could and probably am horribly wrong).
but looking at these letters as a lense to see kafka himself a lot kroe could be seen and said of himself and his motivations. (kinda spoilers ish onwards) it seems to me this relationship with felice was more of a method to find approval over himself and his work but this was bound to fail (he only ever starts to fight for this engagement when she fully starts to rebuke any communication with him, he constantly worries when he has no scheduled response and would send telegrams if he hadn’t gotten a response, although this could be more said about the difficulty in communication back in the 1910s). whatver it is, he obviosult for something from this relationship because it was this time period where he published a lot of his more famous works (metamorphosis, the trial, in the penal colony).
this isn’t an easy read so bare that in mind if you decide to read it but it IS an interesting one that provides a deeper insight in the mind of someone who has created some heavy and thought provoking books.
but after reading it i cant fully say that he truly loved felice in the way he expressed he did. he makes multiple references in having read the letters of other scholars so one must wonder at some point whether he thought it would ever happen to him or whether his esteem refused to think of it but it makes me wonder on how much of it all was a performance because it really did seem like a performance at times. the problem with seeing the muses of literary figures is that muses (to me) are never meant to last(?) or to even fully be authentic emotions (i could and probably am horribly wrong).
but looking at these letters as a lense to see kafka himself a lot kroe could be seen and said of himself and his motivations. (kinda spoilers ish onwards) it seems to me this relationship with felice was more of a method to find approval over himself and his work but this was bound to fail (he only ever starts to fight for this engagement when she fully starts to rebuke any communication with him, he constantly worries when he has no scheduled response and would send telegrams if he hadn’t gotten a response, although this could be more said about the difficulty in communication back in the 1910s). whatver it is, he obviosult for something from this relationship because it was this time period where he published a lot of his more famous works (metamorphosis, the trial, in the penal colony).
this isn’t an easy read so bare that in mind if you decide to read it but it IS an interesting one that provides a deeper insight in the mind of someone who has created some heavy and thought provoking books.
kelswid's review against another edition
evil ends tonight. I will not be rating this instead I am rating myself -200 for forcing myself to the end of these. why did I do that do that do that do that do that to me.
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