F. Kafka , The Castle, p. 297. All quotations from The Castle are from the Penguin Edition, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1964.
2.
Ibid., p. II.
3.
Translated from Th. W. Adorno, Schubert , p. 25 f; in Moments Musicaux, Frankfurt am Main, 1964.
4.
Cf. Johann von Tepla (von Saaz), Der Ackermann aus Bohmen.
5.
The Castle, p. 295.
6.
Adorno, op.cit ., p. 26f.
7.
Walter BenjaminUber einige Motive bei Baudelaire , p. 231 f; in Illuminationen, Frankfurt am Main, 1961.
8.
Cf.Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, H. Bachtold-Staubli, ed. Vol. IV, Col. 198, Berlin, 1938-41.
9.
The Castle, p. 17.
10.
Quoted by Adorno in: Zweimal Chaplin , p. 89; in Ohne Leitbild. Parva Aesthetica, Frankfurt am Main, 1969. The quotation comes from an early piece entitled Repetition which Kierkegaard wrote under a pseudonym.
11.
G. Janouch, Gesprache mit kafka, Frankfurt am Main, 1969, p. 217.
12.
The Castle, p. 221. The German original reads here: '... dieses Fleisch, das manchmal den Eindruck machte, als sei es nicht recht lebendig'. The Muirs' translation' ... this puppet...' seems unjustifiably free at this point. I have retained the imagery of the original. Cf. in this context also the following remark by the maid Pepi about the officials of the Castle: 'Truly, they were exalted gentlemen, but one had to make a great effort to overcome one's disgust so as to be able to clear up after them' (Ibid., p. 275).
13.
Ibid., p. 237.
14.
Ibid., p. 43f.
15.
Ibid., p. 177.
16.
Cf. Th. Mann, Doktor Faustus, Stockholmer Ausgabe , Frankfurt am Main, 1967, p. 248.
17.
The Castle, p. 177.
18.
Ibid., p. 177.
19.
Ibid., p. 203f.
20.
Ibid., p. 204.
21.
Towards the end of a very vivid description Doblin tries to subsume what he has witnessed under some category: 'It is something horrifying. It's something primitive, atavistic. Has it anything to do with Judaism? They are the living remnants of ancient ideas. The residue of a fear of the dead, fear of the souls that wander without finding rest. A feeling that has been handed down to this people with their religion. It is the remnant of another religion, animism, a death cult' (A. Doblin, Reise in Polen, Olten und Freiburg i. Br., 1968, p. 92 f.).
22.
The Castle, p. 34.
23.
Adorno, Minima Moralia, Frankfurt am Main, 1962 , p. 150.
24.
The Castle, p. 49.
25.
W. Benjamin , Franz Kafka, p. 259; in: Angelus Novus , Frankfurt am Main, 1966.
26.
Cf. Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglanbens , Vol. IV, Col. 196. B. v. Regensburg's original reads: 'die hell ist enmitten dâ daz ertriche aller sumpfigest ist'.
27.
The Castle, p. 22.
28.
Ibid., p. 215.
29.
Ibid., p. 191.
30.
Ibid., p. 176.
31.
Ibid., p. 272f.
32.
Ibid., p. 140.
33.
F. kafka, Hochzeitstvorbereitungen auf dem Lande, Frankfurt am Main, 1950, p. 228f.
34.
The Castle, p. 144.
35.
Ibid., p. 146.
36.
Cf. Die Zimtladen, Munchen1968, p. 78.
37.
The Castle, p. 252f.
38.
Ibid., p. 250.
39.
Ibid., p. 254.
40.
Ibid., p. 254.
41.
Kafka, The Diaries 1910-1923 , 25 December 1911.
42.
kafka, Letters to Milena , New York, 1953, p. 219.
43.
Cf. Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, Vol. IX, Col. 987. In German folk lore the devil's tavern is known by the name of 'Nobiskrug' and as the 'Grenzwirtshaus auf dem Passubergang ins Jenseits'. The etymology of 'nobis' appears to be 'en obis', 'en âbis', 'in abyssum'.
44.
The Castle, p. 227.
45.
Cf. M. Proust, A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, Le Coté de Guermantes, Pléiade, Paris, Tome II, p. 133. Having described at length the miraculous possibilities brought about by the invention of the telephone Proust continues: 'Nous n'avons, pour que ce miracle s'accomplisse, qu'a approcher nos lèvres de la planchette magique et appeler ... les Vierges Vigilantes dont nous entendons chaque jour la voix sans jamais connaitre le visage, et qui sont nos Anges gardiens dans les ténèbres vertignieuses dont elles surveillent jalousement les portes; les Toutes-Puissantes par qui les absents surgissent à notre coté, sans qu'il soit permis de les apercevoir; les Danaides de l'invisible qui sans cesse vident, remplissent, se transmettent les urnes des sons; les ironiques Furies qui, au moment que nous murmurions une confidence à une amie, avec l'espoir que personne ne nous entendait, nous crient cruellement: 'j'écoute'; les servantes toujours irritées du Mystère, le ombrageuses prêtresses de l'Invisible, les Desmoiselles du téléphone!' Cf. also the remarkably similar passage by W. Benjamin in Berliner Kindheit um 1900; in Illuminationen, p. 229 f.
46.
Cf. The Castle, p. 249: 'Well, yes, you are not familiar with conditions here', Burgel says to K. in the course of the interview, 'but even you must, I suppose, have been struck by the foolproofness of the official organization. Now from this foolproofness it does result that everyone who has any petition or who must be interrogated in any matter for other reasons, instantly, without delay, usually indeed even before he has worked the matter out for himself, more, indeed even before he himself knows of it, has already received the summons.'
47.
Cf.Handworterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, Vol. IV, Col. 194.
48.
R. Gray, Kafka's Castle, Cambridge, 1956, p. 131.
49.
5th Duino Elegy, lines 88-94. It is perhaps interesting to note here that the 5th Elegy was written in the spring of 1922 at about the same time as the Castle. Cf. in this context also an entry dated 22 May 1912 in Kafka's Diary: 'Yesterday a wonderfully beautiful evening with Max.... Cabaret Lucerna. Madame la Mort by Rachilde'. (Rachilde, pseud. for Marguerite Valette, 1862-1935, French novelist and playwright.)
50.
Gray, kafka's Castle, p. 132.
51.
The Castle, p. 132f.
52.
Jean- Paul, Ueber das Leben nach dem Tode, oder der Geburtstag; in Ausgewahlte Werke, Berlin, 1848, Bd. XV, p. 251.
