Franz kaftka

• 3 July 1883-3 June 1924
• Live in Prague, Austria-Hungary
• Born into a Jewish family who were middle class and German speaking
• One of the major fiction writers of the 20th century
• Due to many unsucesses with writing, he also had jobs as an insurance clerk and factory manager
• Most of his works remain incomplete and The Metamorphosis is a short novel but is one of the most finished of his works
• He had a struggling relationship with his father who was described as a 'huge, selfish, overbearing businessman.'
• His father worked as a travelling sales representative and his mother was a prosperous brewer
• Franz was the eldest of six children
• Eventually he tried to repair his relationship with his father as shown in the copied letter below:

"Dearest Father,
You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you. As usual, I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you, and partly because an explanation of the grounds for this fear would mean going into far more details than I could even approximately keep in mind while talking. And if I now try to give you an answer in writing, it will still be very incomplete..."[

• Franz's sisters and their families died in concentration camps, also showing, like the letter to his father, he did not have a promising early life
• was fluent in german and czech
• He was twice engaged to felice Bauer but they never did get married
• He suffered with tuberculosis, which he died as a cause of, but also had many other problems to to the many stresses throughout his life including having boils, migraines and insomnia
• He was very close to his sister Ottla who helped him through his illnesses however she died through being gassed on arrival at a concentration camp
• Showed a great interest in jewish culture and spirituality
• He was very close friends with a man name Max Brod who was one of the only escapes form his troubled life besides writing
• Bord and kafka met at university and then remained friends for life and brod was always pushing Kafka to publish his work
• When kafka died, he left max a letter saying that all his works should be burned unread however max was not able to comply with this will so published his works and acclaimed him as 'The greatest poet of our time.'