Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth
century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is sudd
enly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about wh
ich he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, o
r a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of tota
litarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations
of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of
experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their divisio
n to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it
.
