The perform ances of a Yiddish theater group from Poland captivate and inspire him; he later adopts a dramatic structure for “The Metamorphosis,” dividing it into three parts, like acts of a play.

1911By night Kafka does his own writing, and by day he com piles insurance manuals and policies. He develops a friendship with Yiddish actor Isak Löwy; Kafka’s father, without knowing Löwy, compares him to vermin, a meta phor that features heavily in Kafka’s fiction, especially “The Metamorphosis.” Hitherto indifferent to his parents’ religion, Kafka studies Jewish folklore and becomes fas cinated by his Jewish heritage, an appreciation that will increase throughout his life. Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Sym phony, Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), is performed for the first time.
1912Kafka meets Felice Bauer, from Berlin, when she visits Max Brod’s family. An extensive correspondence ensues, in which Kafka attempts to at once woo Felice and keep her at arm’s length. He feverishly composes “The Judg ment” in a single September night; of all his literary ac complishments, Kafka finds this the most satisfying. Soon after, Kafka completes “The Stoker,” the story of a young German immigrant that later becomes the first chapter of his novel Amerika, and “The Metamorphosis,” his tale of a man literally and symbolically transformed into an insect. Thomas Mann publishes Death in Venice.
1913“The Judgment” and “The Stoker” are published. The sec ond Balkan War begins. Kafka meets Felice’s friend Grete Bloch, with whom he corresponds, writing mostly about Felice.
1914Franz and Felice are engaged, but within a month the engagement is broken. Archduke Ferdinand is assassi nated at Sarajevo, setting in motion events that culminate in World War I. After a two-year period of creative ste rility, Kafka writes the parable “In the Penal Colony,” followed by “Before the Law,” a sketch from his novel in progress, The Trial.
1915“The Metamorphosis” is published. Kafka receives the prestigious Fontane Prize for “The Stoker.”
1916He writes a series of stories that will be collected and published in the volume A Country Doctor (1919).
1917Kafka begins learning Hebrew. He becomes engaged to Felice Bauer a second time; diagnosed with tuberculosis, he ends the relationship. Kafka takes a leave of absence from his job, and his diary entries cease. The Balfour Dec laration approves the establishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine.
1918Kafka studies the metaphysical writings of Johann Wolf gang von Goethe, Søren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopen hauer, and Leo Tolstoy, and continues his exploration of the Old Testament and Jewish folklore. He writes apho risms based in part of these studies.
1919A Country Doctor is published, as is “In the Penal Colony.” In the wake of the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi party is founded in Germany, as is the Fascist party in Italy. Kafka becomes engaged to Julie Wohryzek, the daughter of a worker in a synagogue. Kafka’s father objects on social grounds and convinces Kafka to break the en gagement. This action, more than any other, precipitates Kafka’s most autobiographical work, “Letter to His Fa ther.”
1920Kafka meets the Czech writer Milena Jesenská-Pollak, with whom he becomes romantically involved. Milena translates several of Kafka’s works into Czech. She ends the affair in August.
1921Kafka starts writing the stories that will be collected in the volume A Hunger Artist (1924), centered on the difficul ties an artist faces in coming to terms with human society. While seeking to restore his health at the Tatra Mountains sanatorium, Kafka meets Hungarian medical student Robert Klopstock, who becomes his friend and physician.
1922The insurance agency grants Kafka’s request for early re tirement.
1923Kafka meets Dora Diamant, a Jewish socialist twenty years his junior. He moves to Berlin with her, hoping to devote himself fully to writing. Kafka asks Dora’s father for her hand in marriage but is rejected based on a rabbi’s coun sel, perhaps because of his deteriorating health.
1924A Hunger Artist is published. Kafka’s rapidly declining health and his lack of money force him to return to living with his parents, a humiliating experience for him. He dies on June 3 in an advanced stage of tuberculosis of the throat in a sanatorium in Kierling, near Vienna. His last words to Robert Klopstock are “Kill me, or you are a mur derer.” Before his death, Kafka asks Max Brod to destroy all of his unpublished manuscripts.
1925Disregarding Kafka’s request, Brod begins publishing his friend’s work, starting with the first of Kafka’s three unfin ished novels, The Trial.
1926Brod publishes The Castle, an account of the futile efforts of a man to be recognized by the authorities.
1927Max Brod publishes Amerika, an immigrant’s adventures in a baffling new country.
1933The Nazis ban Kafka’s work and hold public burnings of his books.
1940Grete Bloch, who had met Kafka in 1913, claims to be the
1942mother of his child, a boy who died at age six and about whom Kafka had known nothing. The Nazis remove Franz Kafka’s sisters Elli and Valli and their husbands to the Lodz ghetto in Poland, where they die.
1943Kafka’s sister Ottla, because of her marriage to an “Aryan,” is exempt from Nazi deportation. Disdaining the prefer ential treatment, she divorces her husband and chooses to be led away; she ultimately is taken to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she dies.
1944Grete Bloch is beaten to death by a Nazi soldier. Milena Jesenská-Pollak dies at the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück, in Germany.
1952Dora Diamant dies in London.
1960Felice Bauer dies in America.

INTRODUCTION

FRANZ KAFKA’S FICTION DOESN’T make sense.