7.6 /10 1 Votes
Language German Publication date 1931 Published in The Great Wall of China | 3.8/5 Goodreads Media type book (hardcover) Originally published 1931 Genre Short story | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title "Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer" Published in English 1933 London, Martin Secker; 1946 New York, Schocken Books Similar The Hunter Gracchus, Blumfeld - an Elderly Bachelor, Investigations of a Dog, Josephine the Singer - or the Mo, Description of a Struggle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"The Great Wall of China" ("Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer") is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1917. It was not published until 1931, seven years after his death. Max Brod selected stories and published them in the collection Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer.
Contained within the story is a parable that was separately published as "A Message from the Emperor" ("Eine kaiserliche Botschaft") in 1919 in the collection Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor). Some sub-themes of the story include why the wall was built piecemeal (in small sections in many different places), the relationship of the Chinese with the past and the present and the emperor's imperceptible presence. The story is told in first person by an older man from a southern province.
The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York City: Schocken Books, 1946).