Der Prozeß

Prozeß, Der, a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914-15 and published posthumously in 1925. Though the novel has a conclusion, it is unfinished. K., a bank official, is arrested for reasons which are not apparent to him. He is subjected to protracted investigation and interrogation, in which the processes of law undergo dream-like distortions. All his efforts to penetrate the reasons for his arrest and trial fail. K. is finally marched off by two men in black who put him to death by knifing him. Der Prozeß is usually seen as an allegory of existential guilt. It contains the parable Vor dem Gesetz, which Kafka included in the collection Ein Landarzt (1919). It is the subject of an opera by G. von Einem. The critical edition of the novel by M. Pasley (1990) is based on the original MS.