Max Brod: Schloss Nornepygge

A meteoric rise with a rebelliously decadent key work: in the literary world of Berlin's bohemian scene, this novel made its young Prague author famous overnight and gave modernism its signature. At last, the most significant of the early, sensational texts by Franz Kafka's friend and executor can be rediscovered. Schloss Nornepygge, published in 1908, was hailed as "the most modern of modern books" and transports readers into the world of Walder Nornepygge, a rich, civilisation-weary and overly refined young man on a desperate search for his identity. With each chapter, he commits himself to a new lifestyle, follows different ideas and throws himself into new loves. In this way, he wanders through the entire spectrum of lifestyles conceivable at the time, between Eros and Satanism, romanticism, adventurism, debauchery and asceticism. In doing so, he not only changes styles like clothes, but also immediately demystifies them as mere illusions. How much was Kafka influenced by this early Brod with his ingenious experiments and all-encompassing irony about the world? This becomes clear when reading this critical edition, which is supplemented by contemporary reviews, an afterword and comments.