Originally omitted from Kafkas famous diaries these notebooks contain some of Kafkas most famous aphorismsFrom late 1917 until June 1919 Franz Kafka ceased to keep a diary for which he had used quartosize notebooks instead writing in a series of smaller octavosize notebooks. When Kafkas literary executor Max Brod published the diaries in 1948 he omitted these notebookswhich include short stories fragments of stories and other literary writingsbecause he wrote notations of a diary nature dates are found in them only as a rare exception. The Blue Octavo Notebooks have thus remained little known and yet are among the most characteristic and brilliantly gnomic of Kafkas work. In addition to otherwise unpublished material the notebooks contain some of Kafkas most famous aphorisms within their original context. This edition of the English translation has been corrected with reference to the German text for certain omissions and discrepancies of sequence. Followers of Kafka will require this book and will find it most rewarding. Library Journal.