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When I first read The Trial I was as bewildered as K. But then I read the opening passages of Discipline and Punish and suddenly it all made sense. The court system present into the C18 described by Foucault closely matched that described by Kafka. In fact I can imagine he found it very amusing to subject his modern man to such absurdities. Stop me if this is old news but it was a revelation to me.
I'll have to check that out. There's a bit in the chapter 'The End' where K.'s being led to the quarry, he stops voluntarily on a bridge. From what I remember there is a surprisingly similar bit in Dostevsky's Crime and Punishment; on Raskolnikov's way to the police station he stops on a bridge. I suspect that other great novel was a source for Kafka's darker bent. This sheds some light on K.'s predicament and adds weight to the interpretation that he, just as voluntarily, damns himself. What do you think?
great book. the missing chapter adds a touch of mystery to the whole feel of the book