Nicholas Lezard

The wry humour of Franz Kafka

A masterly new translation of his Diaries reminds us that Kafka wasn’t solely the prophet of a century of dehumanisation

Wryly amused by his surroundings and the ways of the world: Kafka in Prague, c.1920. [Getty Images]
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  • Completely Kafka: A Comic Biography

    Nicolas Mahler

    Pushkin Press, pp. 128, £12

  • Selected Stories

    Franz Kafka, translated by Mark Harman

    Belknap Press, pp. 352, £24

  • Diaries

    Franz Kafka, edited and translated by Ross Benjamin

    Penguin Classics, pp. 670, £24

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