The Hunter Gracchus

The Hunter Gracchus (Der Jäger Gracchus) is a short story written by Franz Kafka. The story presents a death boat carrying the long dead Hunter Gracchus as it arrives at a port. The Burgomaster of Riva enters the boat and inside he meets Gracchus who gives him an account of his death while hunting and how he is destined to wander aimlessly and eternally over the seas. An additional fragment presents an extended dialogue between Gracchus and an unnamed interviewer, supposedly the same Burgomaster.

Written in the first half of 1917, the story was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation appears in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York: Schocken Books, 1946. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir). The story and fragment both appear in The Complete Stories.^[1]

In a diary entry from 6 April 1917 Kafka describes a strange boat standing at port which he is told belongs to the Hunter Gracchus.^[2]

Kafka's short story is paraphrased in, and its content interwoven into, the novel Vertigo by W G Sebald.

Footnotes

^ Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1995. p. 226-234.
^ Kafka, Franz. Diaries 1910-1923. New York: Schocken Books, 1988. p. 373

Works by Franz Kafka

Novels

Short stories

1902–12	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" Wedding Preparations in the Country The Judgment Contemplation The Stoker The Metamorphosis

1914–17	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" ("The Giant Mole") "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "The Warden of the Tomb" "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"

1917–23	"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" "Home-Coming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"

Short story
collections

Diaries and
notebooks

Letters

Professional
writings

The Office Writings

Bibliography