Ein hungerkunstler

8vo of 86 pp., 1 l. Original blue cloth, internally clean and bright.

193 x 133 mm.

Kafka, Franz. Ein hungerkunstler.
Verlag die Schmiede, Berlin, 1924.

First edition of this masterpiece of Kafka’s maturity.

« Le jeûne ne nourrit plus son homme », telle est la conclusion à laquelle arrive Kafka, qui évoque dans cette nouvelle philosophique les souffrances, la gloire et la fin obscure d’un artiste jadis célèbre dans son genre. Il y eut en effet une période où le champion du jeûne était fort à la mode. Cependant tout passe même l’admiration que suscite un jeûneur professionnel. L’administration néglige de plus en plus le pauvre artiste et l’on y fait à peine attention ; l’on oublie de compter les jours de son jeûne…

Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist” was first written in 1922 and published in a collection also entitled A Hunger Artist. “A Hunger Artist” is one of the few manuscripts which Kafka did not request that his friends burn or otherwise destroy after his death.

“A Hunger Artist”, which takes place in an unspecified time and place, is about a man world-famous for his public performances of the act of fasting, for as much as forty days at a time. Even at the height of his career, the hunger artist is unsatisfied with his work and frustrated by both his manager and his audiences, who never fully appreciate his true talent or the purity of his “art.” The hunger artist struggles internally with his sense of dissatisfaction with himself and his feelings of alienation from the world outside the “cage” in which he fasts. As the years go by, the hunger artist’s profession goes out of vogue, while audiences move on to newer trends in mass entertainment.

“A Hunger Artist” explores themes of self-hatred, inadequacy, and alienation. “Hunger” becomes symbolic of both a lust for life and a spiritual yearning.

A beautiful copy preserved in its original cloth.