The essays in the present volume demonstrate why Corngold is responsible in great degree for readers' understanding of Kafka's literary imagination. Corngold provides a critical road map through nearly a century of Kafka scholarship, with footnotes genuflecting to the previous generation ... Recommended [for] lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

CHOICE

With superb erudition and his inimitable flair, Stanley Corngold's Expeditions offer a magisterial guide through the intricate and ambiguous terrain of Kafka's texts. Insights abound, providing a comprehensive and consistently profound investigation that strikes the perfect balance between drawing interpretive conclusions and maintaining hermeneutic openness-a culminating accomplishment by Kafka's most inspired and most inspiring reader.

John T. Hamilton, William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Harvard University, USA

You are not being introduced to Kafka – you fall into his stories as you fall into a trap, the bait emerging in the interstices between his words and your mind. That said, Corngold's Expeditions are by far the best introduction to Kafka I have seen. He invites you to join him on his ventures into Continent Kafka, and he inspires you to stray off from his expeditions on your own terms, and risk.

Benno Wagner, Professor in German Studies, Siegen University, Germany

Stanley Corngold has been reading, reflecting, and commenting on Kafka and his writings for more than half a century. He has become our most penetrating and luminous guide to Kafka's labyrinthine world. These essays, the distillate of a lifetime, manage both to reveal and to preserve the mystery of Kafka's genius.

Robert Norton, Professor of German, University of Notre Dame, USA

There is hardly an area of Kafka's life, hardly a debate in Kafka criticism that Expeditions does not weigh in on. In this essay collection, Corngold brings to bear a lifetime of work as an eminently gifted, astute, and diligent translator, editor, and critic.

Modern Language Notes