The Castle

By: Franz Kafka

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

This new edition of Kafka's terrifying and comic masterpiece is the product of an international team of experts who used Kafka's original text and notes to render this story as close to the author's vision as possible. Kafka's final novel tells the haunting tale of a man's relentless struggle with authority in order to gain entrance to the Castle.

The story of K - the unwanted land surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle and yet cannot go home - seems to depict, like a dream from the deepest recesses of consciousness, an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. A perpetual human condition lies at the heart of this labyrinthine world: dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, reason and nonsense, harmony and disintegration. An unfinished novel that feels strangely complete, The Castle uses absurd fantasy to reveal a profound truth.

©1998 Schocken Books, Inc. (P)1998 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"To read Kafka is always a surprising encounter. It shocks literary conventions and takes you with a jolt to the depths of the soul....The new translation by Harman restores Kafka to Kafka." ( Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"A necessary acquisition for anyone interested in Kafka." ( Library Journal)

High Comedy Despite Spotty Narration

Any additional comments?

It is true that the narrator's voice appears to be edited-over occasionally for no discernible reason. I did not find this to be as much of a problem as most listeners did according to the reviews. I want to say though - having sampled the other readings - I still think this is the best recording. Howard's quick pace not only shortens the listening time (substantially), but also keeps the reading lively and imbues portions of it a degree of comedy that is hard to overstate.

Odd audio switches

At seemingly random times during the reading the performer’s voice changes to an older, maybe more British accented man. Then, nearly as soon as the voice changes, it changes back. It is alarming and feels akin to a glitch in the matrix. Kafka, I assume, wouldn’t have it any other way. Myself… I prefer a singular reading voice sans substitute British ghosts.

Wonderful reading (but will strange interruptions)

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Because it captures the rhythms of Kafka's prose nicely.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

For some reason, Howard's reading was periodically (rarely but recurring) interrupted by another voice (or Howard's voice on a different day and under different conditions). It sounded as though someone had come along after the initial recording and inserted new material. I found these interjections strange and frustrating. It seemed far less than professional to me.

Disjointed Audio and Performance

As other reviewers have noted, the recording itself is plagued by noticeable redubs with seemingly a different performer and with noticeably different acoustics. It’s quite distracting when listening on headphones. I found the reading performance to be done in halting way that doesn’t reflect the regular flow and phrasing of spoken English. Given that this is a translation from German and the book itself can be disorienting, I can’t tell if the choice is deliberate or not. But at some point in listening, I found myself only hearing the strange spoken cadence, stopped listening to the story (although I’ve read it a handful of times in the last forty years), and gave up.