FRAGMENTS

B.’s Friend

In the days that followed K. found it impossible to speak to Fräulein

Bürstner at all, even to exchange a few words with her. He tried all

sorts of different ways of approaching her, but she always managed

to avoid contact with him. He would come straight home from work

and stay in his room with the light off, sitting on the sofa doing noth-

ing but keep the hall under observation.

In the Cathedral

K. was given the task of showing a very important Italian business

associate of the bank, who was visiting the city for the first time,

some of its artistic treasures. It was a task which at any other time he

would have regarded as an honour. Now, however, at a time when it

was taking all his effort to maintain his reputation in the bank, he

accepted it reluctantly

Block, the Corn Merchant · The Dismissal of the Lawyer

K. had finally decided to take his case out of the lawyer’s hands. He

couldn’t entirely rid himself of doubts as to whether this was the

correct course of action, but they were outweighed by his conviction

that it was necessary. On the day he intended to visit the lawyer his

decision had severely reduced his capacity for work, he had to stay

very late in the office, and it was already after ten when he finally

reached the lawyer’s door.

The Lawyer · The Factory-Owner · The Painter

One winter’s morning — outside snow was falling in the murky light —

K. was in his office, feeling extremely tired already despite the early

hour. In order to prevent himself from at least being disturbed by the

clerks, he’d told the messenger not to let any of them in, because he

was occupied with an important piece of work.

His Uncle · Leni

One afternoon — it was just before the post was due to go, and K.

was very busy — his Uncle Karl, a small landowner from the country,

pushed his way into the room between two messengers who were

bringing documents.

The Thrasher

As K. was going along the corridor from his office to the main stairs

one evening soon afterwards — on that day he was almost the last to

leave, there were just two messengers still working in dispatch in the

little circle of light from a lamp — he heard groans coming from

behind a door where he had always assumed, without having actually

seen it himself, that there was nothing but a lumber-room.

In the Empty Conference Hall

The Student · The Offices

During the next week K. waited daily for a new appointment. He

could not believe they had taken his rejection of hearings literally,

and when the expected notification had not arrived by Saturday

evening, he assumed there was a tacit summons to be in the same

building at the same time. So he returned there on the Sunday, going

straight up the stairs and along the corridors.

The First Hearing

K. had been informed by telephone that a short hearing in his affair

would take place the next Sunday. He was advised that these hear-

ings would now proceed regularly, if not every week perhaps, then

certainly at fairly frequent intervals.