Richard and Samuel

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The first chapter of the book Richard and Samuel was written in 1911 as an attempt at joint work by Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod . The subtitle is “The first long train journey (Prague – Zurich)”.

Emergence

It is a description of a real journey by both friends. They each kept a travel diary, so they describe the various sequences, circumstances and sensitivities on the trip from their respective perspective. However, both of them quickly found the collaboration unsatisfactory, as they felt their great differences more and more disturbing. They therefore ended this collaboration after the first chapter. At Brod's instigation, this first chapter was published in June 1912 in the Herder-Blätter (created as a kind of Jewish student newspaper of the editor Willy Haas ), in which many well-known Prague writers, including Franz Werfel and Paul Leppin , published.

Richard and Samuel is probably the least known of the works published during Kafka's lifetime and has so far rarely been interpreted.

Two text passages from the work have survived. One of them, Kafka's "Sketch for Introduction to Richard and Samuel", had been in Swiss private ownership since 1983 and was auctioned in Hamburg in 2018.

content

Initially, two fictional people, Richard and Samuel, are introduced and characterized. The subject is not only the description of the train journey on August 26th and 27th, 1911, but also the consideration of their friendship with men, whereby a euphoric, enthusiastic style is used to characterize them.

The reader then experiences the description of the various events on the train. Richard starts thinking about the right notebook for the trip. Samuel registers a passing train with coquettish peasant women. Richard then doesn't like the way Samuel gets to know them. A girl comes into the compartment, a Dora Lippert, who gushes off in high spirits and reveals many things about herself, u. a. that she works in a technical office with lots of men and has a lot of fun there. Richard admires her because she is so energetic and musical, but actually he only sees her anemia and tries with missionary zeal to explain to her that only natural treatment is advisable here.

The two protagonists go into the dining car with the girl and are already quite familiar with her. Samuel urges her to take a short city tour in a taxi during a short stay in Munich. At first the girl is reluctant, but then comes along. Richard has to think of the then current film The White Slave , in which two men ambush an innocent girl at a train station and kidnap her. You get back to the train station in time and then put Dora on her train to Innsbruck.

Samuel reveals in his part that he would have liked to spend a night in Munich with Dora, but that Richard could not understand this. So he is quite dissatisfied with Richard.

A large part then takes up Richard's description of his sleep on the train; he is a person who normally has trouble sleeping, but here on the train he sleeps surprisingly well.

At Samuel's suggestion, various views of Switzerland are still admired.

The chapter ends with Richard's consideration that his friend is ultimately not enough for him as a company. He realizes that he thinks longingly of that Dora and that daily fellowship with another man in his physical appearance cannot do him emotionally justice.

The promise “(to be continued)” at the end of the first chapter is not kept.

shape

The introductory sequence and the final passage - Richard's last statement - each deal with the view of the friendship between the two men. The introduction is hopefully euphoric, while the end is sobering.

In between are the very divergent statements of the friends about the same events. From the text, however, it is not clear which part is Max Brod and which Kafka. At first it is clear that they refer to the same occurrences. In the course of the novel, these references disappear more and more. Everyone is more likely to be in their own world for long passages. It is noticeable that for Samuel the observed world is on the outside, but Richard primarily reflects his own inner being.

Text analysis

The introductory description of the two protagonists does not allow any direct conclusions to be drawn as to which poet is speaking through which of the two travelers. The diary entries suggest, however, that the introverted Richard Kafka and the seducer represents Samuel Brod.

Initially, the importance of male friendship in itself and especially for the literary project is invoked. As soon as the joint notes begin, however, a certain resentment and nagging develops - half open, half covered - from both sides, which runs through the whole chapter and ends in a perplexed discomfort.

The voyeuristic gaze of two bachelors remains predominant. But Samuel is much more outward-looking, he comments on the incidents that the train ride offers. He courageously makes contact with the ladies and is also partially successful. Richard's thoughts revolve around himself and various meticulous concerns. The parts in which the flowing transition from the sleep to the waking stage is described clearly refer to Kafka's style (“what I see is captured by the careless memory of the dreaming”).

Quote

  • "The many nuances, whose friendships between men are able to represent and at the same time to let the countries visited see their freshness and meaning through a contradicting double illumination, as they are often wrongly ascribed only to exotic areas: is the meaning of this book".

Self-testimony

  • Kafka zu Brod: “You always had a thing for Richard and Samuel, I know. It was a wonderful time, why must it have been good literature? ”.

expenditure

  • Franz Kafka: Prints during his lifetime. Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1996, pp. 419-440.
  • Sascha Michel (ed.): On the way with Franz Kafka. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-90270-5 .

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Complete text in: Unterwegs mit Franz Kafka edited by Sascha Michel S. Fischerverlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-90270-5 , p. 102
  2. ↑ Unseld p. 31
  3. ↑ Unseld p. 33
  4. ↑ Sandra Kegel: The friends. Auction of a Kafka sketch, in: FAZ No. 119, May 25, 2018, p. 9.
  5. ↑ Alt p. 238
  6. ↑ Zimmermann p. 10
  7. ↑ Alt p. 238
  8. ↑ Zimmermann p. 14
  9. ↑ Alt p. 239
  10. ↑ Stach p. 75

Web links

Text of the chapter in the novel Richard and Samuel