A Little Woman

1923 short story

"A Little Woman"
Short story by Franz Kafka
Original title	'Eine kleine Frau'
Translator	Francis C. Golfing (1943) Willa and Edwin Muir (1948)
Country	Germany
Language	German
Genre(s)	Short story
Publication
Published in	Prager Tagblatt
Publication type	periodical
Publication date	20 April 1924
Published in English	1943

"A Little Woman" (German: "Eine kleine Frau") is a short story by Franz Kafka written between December 1923 and the end of January 1924. It was first published in the Easter supplement of Prager Tagblatt on 20 April 1924. During his final illness Kafka corrected the proofs of the story for the inclusion into collection A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler) published by Verlag Die Schmiede after his death.

Plot summary

The story begins with a detailed description of an anxious young woman. The woman is frustrated with the narrator for some reason which he cannot understand as they are strangers. The narrator contemplates the situation and wonders what will help the little woman with her obsessive frustration with him. He considers that even committing suicide would not affect her anger at him. The reliability of the narrator is not a given, and sometimes there seems the suggestion that he is not the actual source of the woman's irritation, but merely considers himself to be so.^[1]

Process of writing

At the end of September 1923 Kafka moved to Berlin-Steglitz with Dora Dymant where he wrote "A Little Woman," based on their landlady.

Publication history (in English)

1943; translated by Francis C. Golffing, Accent, Summer 1943, pp. 223-227.
1948; translated by Willa and Edwin Muir, in The Penal Colony, New York, Schocken Books, 320 p.

Notes

German Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Eine kleine Frau

^ Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York City: Schocken Books, 1995. 317-324.

Franz Kafka (works)

Novels

The Trial
The Castle
Amerika

Short stories

1902–1912	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "The Judgment" "The Stoker" The Metamorphosis "The Aeroplanes at Brescia"
1914–1917	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"
1917–1923	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Homecoming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"