"At Night" (German: "Nachts") is a very short story by Franz Kafka written in his notebooks.^[1]

As with many of the pieces in his notebooks, the tale is more of a segment than a story. The narrator reflects on the emptiness that can engulf one during nighttime. Yet, at the same time, where each person sleeps, there has been a rich history. Someone, the story says, must watch others at night, either for protection or posterity.

Gustav Janouch suggests that Kafka's tale was influenced both by his persistent insomnia and a desire to relate the potential dangers of people in society who are not watched when they should be.^[2]

References

^ The Blue Octavo Notebooks by Franz Kafka, Max Brod - 1991
^ Conversations with Kafka by G. Janouch - 1971

Franz Kafka (works)

Novels

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"

Short story
collections

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters
and essays

Plays

The Warden of the Tomb

Category