A Notebook Filled with Study Scribbles Sold for Over 100 Million KRW

"Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect."

This is the opening line of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. It is an extremely famous passage from the novel.

Franz Kafka, a leading writer of 20th-century existential literature,

recently had his Hebrew practice notebook sold for about 90,000 euros (approximately 142 million KRW).

This took place at a rare books and graphic art fair held in Paris, France, in June.

In the short story "Report to the Academy" published in 1919,

Kafka wrote Hebrew words in the blank spaces,

showing traces of studying it himself.

"A Notebook Containing the Dream of Emigrating to Palestine"

At that time, he was contemplating emigration to Palestine,

so he took Hebrew lessons for several years to learn the language.

Although it is now the official language of Israel, at that time Israel had not yet been established.

The land of Palestine was under British mandate during this period.

In 1924, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 40, making it impossible for him to ever realize his dream of emigration.

The notebook in which he practiced Hebrew had not been made public for a long time,

Thierry Busset, a French doctor who has been collecting rare editions of Kafka since the 1970s.

Among his collection, a total of 427 rare editions including Kafka's first edition were unveiled

Notebooks containing notes also saw the light of day.

"Did They Ignore His Will to Burn Everything?"

In 1924, after dying of tuberculosis, Kafka left a will to his friend Max Brod.

"Do not read my writings, and burn them all."

However, Brod did not follow his will.

Instead, he published Kafka's major works such as The Trial, The Castle, and America,

posthumously establishing Kafka as a giant in literary history.

Franz Kafka statue located in Prague, Czech Republic. Pexels.

Subsequent works went to Broad → his secretary Esther Hope

→ Ownership then passed to Hope's daughters,

Some were sold while others were kept by individuals.

They ended up wandering for nearly 100 years.

"Kafka Was Jewish, So Should His Works Belong to the State?"

Since 2008, the Israeli government has officially

filed lawsuits claiming that "Kafka's legacy belongs to the Jewish people",

and after more than ten years of legal battles, in 2019,

the court ruled that the National Library of Israel would hold ownership.

"Questions Raised by the Hebrew Notebook"

A single notebook of Kafka has brought up complex questions about the author's identity, the weight of his will, and the ownership of his legacy.

It has reopened these complicated issues.

To think that such profound stories could emerge from just one 'Hebrew study notebook',

he truly was a great literary figure.

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