![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Franz Kafka
Jul. 22nd, 2015 11:36 amIn a book review for a new biography on Kafka by Reiner Stach, we get this pleasant glimpse into the writer's life as a young, lusty man.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
One of the main perks of the new job were its hours. Kafka’s working day ended at 2 pm; after a nap, he often wrote until late at night. And yet it would be wrong to picture the young Kafka tied to his desk, living a life of monkish isolation. He savoured the Prague nightlife, and was more at home in its cafés, bars and cinemas than in its theatres and concert halls. A particular attraction were the Weinstuben (wine bars) with their permissive atmosphere. Waitresses joined the guests at the tables, and there were private side rooms, though most guests didn’t come for sex but to eat, drink and flirt. Writing to Brod from his office on a Sunday morning, Kafka suggests they meet on Tuesday at 5 am to enjoy a spot of nightlife before going straight to work: “we could have the two girls as our first breakfast – the kind you’re so fond of”. Yet Kafka was not as hardened a womanizer as his letter suggests. A photo shows him – dapper with bowler hat – with the waitress Juliane “Hansi” Szokoll, with whom he had a passionate but unhappy love affair.
Brod was a constant companion not only on these nocturnal excursions but also on several trips abroad, to Germany and Switzerland, Italy and France, between 1909 and 1911. On the longest journey, which took them to Paris via Munich, Zurich, Lucerne and Milan, Kafka and Brod kept parallel diaries, which they intended to publish as a co-authored travelogue. Another plan was to write a travel guide, simply called Billig (“Cheap”), a kind of budget Baedeker. Though in the end neither project came to fruition, their travels were a high point of their friendship. Young, on regular incomes and unburdened by family responsibilities, they were closer than at any other point in their lives; as Brod recalls in his memoirs: “it was a great happiness to live in Kafka’s presence”. They soaked up the bustling atmosphere of Paris – its museums, theatres and brothels – but it was during a trip to Italy that they witnessed a unique technological spectacle. In September 1909, Kafka, Brod and Brod’s brother Otto cut short their holiday at Lake Garda to see the legendary Louis Blériot – the first pilot to cross the British Channel – in action at the airshow in Brescia.
-- Carolin Duttlinger for The Times Literary Supplement
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
One of the main perks of the new job were its hours. Kafka’s working day ended at 2 pm; after a nap, he often wrote until late at night. And yet it would be wrong to picture the young Kafka tied to his desk, living a life of monkish isolation. He savoured the Prague nightlife, and was more at home in its cafés, bars and cinemas than in its theatres and concert halls. A particular attraction were the Weinstuben (wine bars) with their permissive atmosphere. Waitresses joined the guests at the tables, and there were private side rooms, though most guests didn’t come for sex but to eat, drink and flirt. Writing to Brod from his office on a Sunday morning, Kafka suggests they meet on Tuesday at 5 am to enjoy a spot of nightlife before going straight to work: “we could have the two girls as our first breakfast – the kind you’re so fond of”. Yet Kafka was not as hardened a womanizer as his letter suggests. A photo shows him – dapper with bowler hat – with the waitress Juliane “Hansi” Szokoll, with whom he had a passionate but unhappy love affair.
Brod was a constant companion not only on these nocturnal excursions but also on several trips abroad, to Germany and Switzerland, Italy and France, between 1909 and 1911. On the longest journey, which took them to Paris via Munich, Zurich, Lucerne and Milan, Kafka and Brod kept parallel diaries, which they intended to publish as a co-authored travelogue. Another plan was to write a travel guide, simply called Billig (“Cheap”), a kind of budget Baedeker. Though in the end neither project came to fruition, their travels were a high point of their friendship. Young, on regular incomes and unburdened by family responsibilities, they were closer than at any other point in their lives; as Brod recalls in his memoirs: “it was a great happiness to live in Kafka’s presence”. They soaked up the bustling atmosphere of Paris – its museums, theatres and brothels – but it was during a trip to Italy that they witnessed a unique technological spectacle. In September 1909, Kafka, Brod and Brod’s brother Otto cut short their holiday at Lake Garda to see the legendary Louis Blériot – the first pilot to cross the British Channel – in action at the airshow in Brescia.
-- Carolin Duttlinger for The Times Literary Supplement
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
