Fiction
Related: About this forumWhen he was 40, the renown Bohemian novelist and short story writer FRANZ KAFKA
(18831924), who never married and had no children, was strolling through Steglitz Park in Berlin, when he chanced upon a young girl crying her eyes out because she had lost her favorite doll. She and Kafka looked for the doll without success. Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would look again.
The next day, when they still had not found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter "written" by the doll that said, Please do not cry. I have gone on a trip to see the world. I'm going to write to you about my adventures."
Thus began a story that continued to the end of Kafkas life.
When they would meet, Kafka read aloud his carefully composed letters of adventures and conversations about the beloved doll, which the girl found enchanting. Finally, Kafka read her a letter of the story that brought the doll back to Berlin, and he then gave her a doll he had purchased. This does not look at all my doll," she said. Kafka handed her another letter that explained, "My trips, they have changed me." The girl hugged the new doll and took it home with her. A year later, Kafka died.
Many years later, the now grown-up girl found a letter tucked into an unnoticed crevice in the doll. The tiny letter, signed by Kafka, said, Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way."
https://www.facebook.com/TheLoveRabbi
rurallib
(63,200 posts)Biophilic
(4,740 posts)The story with Kafka and the young girl is lovely. But the note he left her is one of those that sort of sets you back on your ass to think about. Thanks.
FalloutShelter
(12,749 posts)A real gift in every way
especially for those who may have considered Kafka to be something of a pessimist when it came to humanity.
LOVE THIS thanks so much for bringing it here.
elleng
(136,071 posts)=characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.
yet he spends years comforting the girl>woman.
FalloutShelter
(12,749 posts)Lovely and inspiring.
SheltieLover
(59,610 posts)Ty for sharing, Ellen!
I love Kafka's work.