Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer [The Great Wall of China]. by Kafka, Franz - 1931

Berlin: Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, 1931. First edition of this collection of short stories by Kafka. Octavo, bound in full leather, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt tooling to the front and rear panel, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. In fine condition. While written in 1917, it was not published until 1930, seven years after Kafka's death. Max Brod included it in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, the first posthumous collection of short stories by Franz Kafka.Contained within the story is a parable that was separately published as "A Message from the Emperor" ("Eine kaiserliche Botschaft") in 1919 in the collection Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor). Some sub-themes of the story include why the wall was built piecemeal (in small sections in many different places), the relationship of the Chinese with the past and the present and the emperor's imperceptible presence. The story is told in first person by an older man from a southern province.