Letter to My Father
An Autobiographical Reckoning with Paternal Authority, Guilt, Family Conflict, and the Origins of a Singular Literary VisionBy Franz Kafka
Length2h 3m
About this audiobook
In *Letter to My Father*, Franz Kafka constructs an extraordinary document of familial accusation, self-examination, and failed communication. Addressed to his father, Hermann, the text revisits childhood memories, domestic authority, religious practice, work, marriage, and Kafka's own sense of inadequacy, transforming personal grievance into a searching inquiry into how power shapes consciousness. Neither conventional correspondence nor simple autobiography, it combines the precision of a legal brief with the anxiety, recursive logic, and dark irony characteristic of Kafka's fiction. Written in 1919 but never delivered or published during his lifetime, the letter occupies a revealing place within European literary modernism, anticipating later confessional and psychoanalytic modes while illuminating the emotional structures behind his novels and stories. Kafka's reflections emerge from a deeply ambivalent relationship with Hermann Kafka, a forceful, materially successful tradesman whose authority Kafka experienced as intimidating and morally inconsistent. The son's fraught feelings—fear, resentment, admiration, guilt, and longing for recognition—are intensified by his own struggles with illness, writing, employment, intimacy, and marriage. Although the letter is shaped by memory and rhetorical reconstruction rather than objective biography, its candor reveals Kafka's sustained effort to understand both his father and himself. This indispensable work is recommended to readers seeking the biographical and psychological dimensions of Kafka's imagination, as well as to anyone interested in modern literature's treatment of authority, memory, and selfhood. It rewards careful reading not as a final explanation of Kafka, but as a complex literary act of attempted reconciliation.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir
Length2 hrs 3 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 17, 2025
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments (Annotated)
2Letter to My Father
3Text
Brief an den Vater (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka3h 46m$2.50 · $0.00
IN THE PENAL COLONY & THE METAMORPHOSIS (Annotated)Franz Kafka4h 53m$2 · $0.00
Franz Kafka - Gesammelte Werke (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka67h 28m$1 · $0.00
Colección integral de Franz Kafka (Anotado)Franz Kafka38h 54m$0.99 · $0.00
Amerika (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka12h 12m$1 · $0.00
La metamorfosis (Anotado)Franz Kafka3h 51m$0.99 · $0.00
Letters to Milena (Annotated)Franz Kafka9h 46m$2 · $0.00
Der Verschollene (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka12h 41m$1 · $0.00
Ein Landarzt - Kleine Erzählungen (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka3h 2m$1 · $0.00
A Hunger Artist (Annotated)Franz Kafka2h 46m$2 · $0.00
The Metamorphosis + In the Penal Colony (2 contemporary translations by Ian Johnston) (Annotated)Franz Kafka4h 47m$2 · $0.00
A Country Doctor (Annotated)Franz Kafka2h 49m$2 · $0.00
El proceso (Anotado)Franz Kafka10h 25m$0.99 · $0.00
Ein Hungerkünstler (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka2h 55m$1 · $0.00
Betrachtung (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka2h 12m$1 · $0.00
Die Verwandlung (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka4h 4m$1 · $0.00
Brief an den Vater (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka3h 42m$1 · $0.00
Die größten Romane der deutschen Literatur (Kommentiert)Franz Kafka, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Hans Fallada, Robert Musil, Heinrich Mann, Joseph Roth, Hermann Broch, Ödön von Horváth, Elisabeth Langgässer, Kurt Tucholsky, Karl May, Klaus Mann, Joseph von Eichendorff, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Gustav Freytag, Johanna Spyri, Theodor Fontane, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Jean Paul, Friedrich Hölderlin, Christoph Martin Wieland522h 54m$1.50 · $0.00
La metamorfosis (Anotado)Franz Kafka3h 52m$0.99 · $0.00
Matters of the HeartJacinta Nampijinpa Price9h 35m$29 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m$28 · $0.00
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass42h 36m$1 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 44m$0.99 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m$0.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m5.0 (1)$24 · $0.00
You may also like
Sophie, Standing ThereMeg Mason9h 18m$29 · $0.00
Persimmon KissMel Bossa9h 57m$5.50 · $0.00
Ordinary Funny TragicBridie Jabour9h 9m$29 · $0.00
No One Gets to Fall ApartSarah LaBrie6h 26m$24 · $0.00
My WorkOlga Ravn7h 33m$32 · $0.00
The PositionMeg Wolitzer10h 1m$20 · $0.00
Don’t CryMary Gaitskill8h 24m$20 · $0.00
The Twilight of the SoulsLouis Marie-Anne Couperus9h 13m$1 · $0.00
Essays in medical sociology, Volume 1Elizabeth Blackwell8h 11m$1 · $0.00
Six Mrs. GreenesLorna Rae7h 16m$2.30
Understanding and Healing the Inner Child: How to recognize unresolved conflicts within yourself, get in touch with your inner child, strengthen and heal it to finally blossom in full vitalityJulia Wiederspohn1h 1m$11 · $0.00
Who's the Favourite?Catherine Carr8h 32m$26 · $0.00
Big WorldMary Miller4h 21m$17
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice ThingsNaomi Wood6h 21m$24 · $0.00
Pushkin and the Queen of SpadesAlice Randall12h 35m$23 · $0.00
13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don't DoAmy Morin10h 10m$29 · $0.00
The Year of the HorsesCourtney Maum6h 50m$17 · $0.00
TwinAllen Shawn7h 2m$17 · $0.00
The Social ParadoxWilliam von Hippel8h 37m$5 · $0.00
All Happy FamiliesJeanne McCulloch6h 40m$24 · $0.00