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Title details for The Trial by Franz Kafka - Wait list

The Trial

by Franz Kafka
Rupert Degas
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 4 weeks

The Trial is one of the great works of the twentieth century: an extraordinary vision of one man put on trial by an anonymous authority on an unspecified charge. Josef K, 30, lives in a large town in an unspecified country. He is summonsed to answer a charge and appears in the court room for his trial. Franz Kafka evokes all the reality of trial without any of the specifics in a society that seems to have degraded into chaos: squalid environment, rats, yellow liquid shooting out of a hole in the wall. Guards, claustrophobia, anxiety – this is a gripping story and an allegory of modern life. This text remains just as relevant a century after it was written.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 22, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9789629545994
      • File size: 240598 KB
      • Duration: 08:21:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 9-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In Kafka's iconic novel, bank functionary Josef K., arrested on unspecified charges, is swallowed up by a bizarre legal system with incomprehensible motives and purposes--a mix of Carrollian absurdity, Eastern European oppression, and nightmare. Rupert Degas's voice acting is understated and telling. His tones are varied and expressive, but appropriately grayed or minor keyed, giving the impression of an intimate, dreamlike, and vaguely threatening whisper. The reading is very British--with names pronounced as German (with an excellent accent), including K. pronounced as "KAH." That choice, while linguistically correct, may result in listeners missing the significance of Kafka's choice of the initial "K," as displayed in text. Still, the fine blend of performance and text is a menacing, seductive cocktail. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      A short note to narrator Geoffrey Howard: Breathe. Take one deep breath. Allow readers a chance to hear a pause so they can press the stop button and not miss anything. End of note. Actually, Howard has a great voice for this modern classic's new translation. (Don't fast-forward past his reading of the translator's note. It explains a lot.) Howard's British accent and deep monotone set the proper dark tone for the book. He stays away from character voices, and that works too because his inflections carry the story's emotions along. Indeed, Howard acts as our intellectual guide by emphasizing key passages and marking them as worthy of interpretation and discussion. If only he would take a breath once in a while. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Veteran performer George Guidall knows what he's doing when he speeds up, backs off, and lurches from fear to relief to shock. It's a narration veering out of control and threatening to crash at any moment, as is Josef K., the character whose trial Guidall is describing. In a story that invokes the humiliatingly absurd, no-win predicaments we think of as Kafkaesque, Guidall shows his understanding of the characters. He also understands the importance of atmosphere to the story. As he describes the garrets, the courtrooms, the rats-in-a-maze thoughts running through Josef K.'s mind as he fights charges that are never spelled out to him, the listener feels trapped and claustrophobic, just as Kafka intended. A less skilled narrator would have made it easier on the listener. T.F. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 4, 2008
      In Kafka’s famed story, bank clerk Joseph K is arrested for a crime that didn’t take place and put on a trial that never occurs. This faithful graphic novel adaptation depicts not just the comical, nightmarish and absurdist themes explored by Kafka but also his gravitation to and mistrust of women. Artist Montellier’s heavy shadows cast The Trial
      in a dark world framed with detailed embellishments that spill out of panels, creating a dreamlike (albeit a nightmare) quality. The surreal feeling of the story, and Kafka’s absurdist view of reality, make this adaptation a dense read, full of strange imagery and, overall, a bit overwhelming. Although a clear, visual rendering of the feeling kafkaesque
      , a new, grotesque element is added with every scene, making it difficult to digest the events of the plot. Likely good supplemental reading to Kafka’s actual novel, this graphic novel may serve as a useful entry point to his writing for teachers and librarians.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:9-12

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