The Trail

Author: Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born the son of a dry-goods shopkeeper in Prague - then in the Austro-Hungarian empire, now the Czech Republic. He studied law, but chose to work for an insurance company to allow him time to pursue other interests. Writing was the principal of these, but Kafka was notoriously reluctant to publish. His student friend, Max Brod, persuaded him in 1913 to allow Meditation, a collection of short stories, to appear. In 1914 he broke off his engagement with Felice Bauer, and began work on The Trial soon after. Diagnosed with TB in 1917, Kafka's health began to worsen and he died in an Austrian sanatorium in 1924. A year later, Brod had The Trial published, disregarding Kafka's deathbed instructions to have his three novels destroyed unread.