Title: Der Verschollene

Title: Der Verschollene Title Record # 1484815
Author: Franz Kafka
Date: 1927-00-00
Type: NOVEL
Series: Karl Roßmann
Language: German

Note:

A first version of this novel was begun in the Spring of 1912 but is lost.
The published work was begun in the autumn of 1912, but Kafka stopped his writing on the text in December of the same year (he may have done some revision in January 1913). The final, somewhat isolated chapter was written in the October of 1914.
The first chapter was published as "Der Heizer" ('The Stoker') in 1913 by Kurt Wolff.
The original publication was initiated by Max Brod as "Amerika", but Kafka wrote of this unfinished novel as "Der Verschollene", which is now the common title.

Synopsis:

Beginning with Karl Roßmann's landing in New York's harbour, this unfinished novel then sets out to describe the protagonist's adventures in the USA - first at his uncle's home, then, after being shunned, traveling around and getting under the influence of various powers.
John Clute describes this America in SFE as dystopian and the final chapter where Roßmann finds the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma is more or less surreal.

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Other Titles

Variant Titles

Translations

Year	Title
1927^ⓘThe original publication was initiated by Max Brod as "Amerika", but Kafka wrote of this unfinished novel as "Der Verschollene", which is now the common title (see there for a synopsis).	Amerika
1983	Der Verschollene in der Fassung der Handschrift

Year	Language	Title
1938^ⓘTranslated by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir	English	America
1940^ⓘTranslated by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, or by Edwin Muir (the New Directions edition credits it to Edwin alone although it is apparently the same translation which is elsewhere credited to both Willa and Edwin).	English	Amerika
1972^ⓘTranslated by Alberto Spaini	Italian	America
1996^ⓘTranslated by Michael Hofmann	English	The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika)
2007^ⓘTranslated by Michael Hofmann	English	Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared
2008^ⓘTranslated by Mark Harman	English	Amerika: The Missing Person
2012^ⓘTranslated by Ritchie Robertson	English	The Man Who Disappeared (America)

Publications

Displaying all variants and translations • Do not display translations • Do not display variants or translations

Title	Date	Author/Editor	Publisher/Pub. Series	ISBN/Catalog ID	Price	Pages	Format	Type	Cover Artist
Amerika	1927-00-00	Franz Kafka	Kurt Wolff			392	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
Amerika	1935-00-00	Franz Kafka	Schocken Verlag (Franz Kafka: Gesammelte Schriften #2)			315	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
America	1938-00-00	Franz Kafka	Routledge		8/6^?Prior to decimilisation (1968-1971), UK books were priced in shillings, or shillings and pence, where 20 shillings equals one pound and 12 old pence equals one shilling. Shillings were indicated with a variety of suffixes, e.g. 3s, 3', 3", 3/ all mean 3 shillings. Any number after that is additional pence, usually 6 (half a shilling) but sometimes 3 or 9 (a quarter of a shilling or three-quarters of a shilling).		hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
Amerika	1940-00-00	Franz Kafka	New Directions		$2.50^?$: US dollar		hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
Amerika	1946-00-00	Franz Kafka	New Directions (New Classics (New Directons) #10)		$1.00^?$: US dollar	x+ 277	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
Amerika	1953-00-00	Franz Kafka	S. Fischer (Franz Kafka: Gesammelte Werke)		DM 15.80^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	361	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
Amerika	1956-09-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei ( Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei #132)	132	DM 1.90^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	234+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Franz Kafka
Amerika	1969-03-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei ( Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei #132)	132	DM 2.80^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	234+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Franz Kafka
Amerika	1970-01-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei ( Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei #132)	132	DM 2.80^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	234+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Franz Kafka
Amerika	1971-03-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei ( Fischer Bücherei^?Fischer Buecherei #132)	3-436-00143-0	DM 3.80^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	234+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Franz Kafka
America	1972-09-00	Franz Kafka	Mondadori (Oscar #421)	10512		362	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel
Der Verschollene in der Fassung der Handschrift	1983-04-00	Franz Kafka	S. Fischer	3-10-038127-0	DM 48.00^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	426	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
The Penguin Complete Novels of Franz Kafka	1983-06-00	Franz Kafka	Penguin Books	0-14-009009-6		638	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	omni
Amerika	1986-00-00	Franz Kafka	S. Fischer	3-10-038174-2		263+ [1]	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
America	1992-01-23	Franz Kafka	Vintage (UK) (Vintage Classics)	0-7493-9951-1		256	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	novel
Der Verschollene in der Fassung der Handschrift	1993-00-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Taschenbuch (Fischer Taschenbücher #11587)	3-596-11587-6	DM 14.90^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	331	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel
Der Verschollene in der Fassung der Handschrift	1994-11-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Taschenbuch (Franz Kafka: Gesammelte Werke in zwölf Bänden #2)	3-596-12442-5	DM 14.90^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	340+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Irina Ionesco
The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika)	1996-00-00	Franz Kafka	Penguin Books				unknown^?The publication record was created from a secondary source and the publication format is unknown.	novel
Der Verschollene in der Fassung der Handschrift	2001-05-00	Franz Kafka	Fischer Taschenbuch (Franz Kafka: Gesammelte Werke in zwölf Bänden #2)	3-596-12442-5	DM 17.90^?DM: German (Deutsche) mark	340+ [1]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Irina Ionesco
Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared	2007-00-00	Franz Kafka	Penguin Books (Penguin Modern Classics)	978-0-14-118838-6		xiv+ 218	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	novel	Jacob Sutton
Amerika	2007-08-27	Franz Kafka	Suhrkamp (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch #3893)	978-3-518-45893-8	€6.50^?€: Euro	311+ [2]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Christine Schneider
Amerika: The Missing Person	2008-00-00	Franz Kafka	Schocken Books (Schocken Kafka Library)	978-0-8052-4211-9	$25.00^?$: US dollar	xxxiii+ 299	hc^?Hardcover. Used for all hardbacks of any size.	novel
The Complete Novels	2008-04-03	Franz Kafka	Vintage (UK) (Vintage Classics)	978-0-09-951844-0	£12.99^?£: UK pound	746	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	omni	Anna Crone
Amerika: The Missing Person	2008-11-18	Franz Kafka	Schocken Books (Schocken Kafka Library)	978-0-8052-4264-5	$7.99^?$: US dollar		ebook^?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF.	novel
Amerika: The Missing Person	2011-08-16	Franz Kafka	Schocken Books (Schocken Classics)	978-0-8052-1161-0		299	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	novel
The Man Who Disappeared (America)	2012-04-12	Franz Kafka	Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics)	978-0-19-960112-7		256	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	novel	Franz Kafka
America	2012-08-31	Franz Kafka	Vintage Digital (Vintage Classics)	978-1-4481-5654-2	£5.49^?£: UK pound		ebook^?Used for all electronic formats, including but not limited to EPUB, eReader, HTML, iBook, Mobipocket, and PDF.	novel
Amerika	2013-00-00	Franz Kafka	Suhrkamp (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch #3893)	978-3-518-45893-8	€7.00^?€: Euro	311+ [2]	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Christine Schneider
America	date unknown	Franz Kafka	Penguin Books (Penguin Modern Classics)	0-14-002639-8	£0.75^?£: UK pound	269	pb^?Paperback. Typically 7" by 4.25" (18 cm by 11 cm) or smaller, though trimming errors can cause them to sometimes be slightly (less than 1/4 extra inch) taller or wider/deeper.	novel	Paul Kelpe
Amerika: The Man Who Disappeared	date unknown	Franz Kafka	Penguin Books (Penguin Modern Classics)	978-0-14-118838-6	£9.99^?£: UK pound	xiv+ 218	tp^?Trade paperback. Any softcover book which is at least 7.25" (or 19 cm) tall, or at least 4.5" (11.5 cm) wide/deep.	novel	Jacob Sutton

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Reviews

Review by Kurt Tucholsky (1929) in Der Rabe, #2, (1983)