Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Description: KAFKA, Franz. THE TRIAL. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1937. 8vo. First British Edition. Pale blue cloth. As is: This is a candidate for rebinding. Spine missing, cloth soiled. Pages toned but clean, aside from one stain on verso of title page.
Seller: Boston Book Company, Inc. ABAA, Boston, MA, U.S.A.
Kafka, Franz / translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. The Trial. Victor Gollancz, 1937, 1937.
Price: US$695.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing The original first edition quite scarce gray blue boards . Very good with the usual rub, but no tears, to the boards. Test is clean throughout
Seller: Longhouse, Publishers & Booksellers, Brattleboro, VT, U.S.A.
Franz Kafka; Willa Muir [trans.]; Edwin Muir [trans.]. The Trial. Victor Gollancz, London, 1937.
Price: US$766.52 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: The first English language edition, first impression, of Franz Kafka's major twentieth century novel, 'The Trial'. The first English language edition of the Czech novelist's celebrated work, telling the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote and bureaucratic authority, for an undisclosed crime.This translation into English, from the original German, was the work of husband and wife Edwin and Willa Muir, who were also the first English translators of 'The Castle'.Sheila Hodges, in her history of Gollancz, suggests that only around one thousand copies of the first edition were sold, many of those to circulating libraries, leaving relatively few still available.The first English translation of one of the best known works of a major figure of twentieth century literature. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Bumping to back strip head and tail, with cloth fading. Handling marks to front board. Small split to cloth at head of front joint, with board holding firm. Hinges intact. Internally, firmly bound. Pages clean and bright. Good
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$966.20 + shipping
Description: First edition in English, first impression, one of an estimated 1,000 copies sold. The Muirs were instrumental in introducing Kafka to the anglophone world, and it is their rendering of The Trial's opening line, "Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K.", that is widely quoted as one of the great first lines in literature. Edwin Muir's reassurance to Gollancz, who was concerned that there was no British audience for the 'kafkaesque', was later fully vindicated: "I feel K. will certainly have a future in this country and become the centre of a literary cult. I look upon [Kafka] as the greatest writer of modern times" (cited in Hodges, p. 101). The edition includes an epilogue by Kafka's literary executor, Max Brod. The Muir translations remain in print today. This novel was first published as Der Prozess (1925). Sheila Hodges, Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, 1928-1978, 1978. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in dark blue. Book block square, spine faded and bumped at foot, foxing to edges and outer leaves, else clean. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Kafka, Franz. THE TRIAL. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1937.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The first edition in English, translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. Published posthumously in 1925, The Trial was organized and published by Kafka's friend and literary executor, Max Brod, despite Kafka's request that the manuscript be destroyed. In what may be Kafka's most pessimistic novel, a conscientious bank official is suddenly arrested, and must defend himself against charges about which he can get no information. Octavo. Original blue cloth binding, with dark blue titles. The spine is lightly faded, far less than usual; else very good or better.
Seller: johnson rare books & archives, ABAA, Covina, CA, U.S.A.