An Odd Couple: Franz Kafka and Max Brod

Inside the relationship that saved Kafka's work from obscurity

Last time, I mentioned Kafka’s relationship with Oskar Pollak, which started during high school and continued into university. When Pollak relocated to Italy, Max Brod took up the mantle. Yet, Kafka corresponded with Pollak for a while longer, discussing his recent readings, such as Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. In a letter dated 10th Jan. 1904, Kafka pointed out his impression that the Roman Emperor was actually rather under stress despite his stoic appearance. Kafka was also reading the works of Christian Friedrich Hebbel—a writer I must admit I know nothing about; but Kafka must have been deeply impressed by Hebbel’s writings, as it was at this time that he wrote the now-famous line to Pollak: ‘A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us’.

So, Franz Kafka and Max Brod… Talk about an odd couple! They are sort of like Hamlet and Horatio, Don Quijote and Sancho, or like Gustave Flaubert and Maxime Du Camp, if you prefer…

They first crossed paths in 1902. Kafka, aged 19, was sta…