Franz Kafka's 1925 novel The Trial is about Josef K., a banker who is prosecuted by a court he has never heard of for a crime that is never revealed. Although K. attempts to fight the illogical accusation, the perplexing legal system steadily wears him down. The novel ends with K.'s abrupt execution, when two men hired by the court twist a knife into K.'s heart. Published one year after Kafka's death, The Trial is one of Kafka's best-known and most characteristic works, as it is emblematic of the author's signature narrative premise of a solitary man futilely trying to find his way out of an absurd, nightmarish, and darkly comic predicament.
Written between 1914 and 1915, the manuscript (originally Der Process) remained unfinished during Kafka's lifetime. Even though Kafka asked that his unfinished works be burned upon his death, his friend and literary executor Max Brod compiled the manuscript for publication by avant-garde publisher Verlag Die Schmiede. Aside from starting by writing the first and final chapters, Kafka wrote the book in no particular order. As Kafka wrote the book in fragments, Brod decided on the best sequence of chapters and left out some sections which he determined to be secondary fragments. These fragments are included at the end of some editions of the novel.
The novel has been adapted for the radio and the stage, as well as the screen. Notable film adaptations include Orson Welles' version, released in 1962, and a 1993 film starring Twin Peaks lead Kyle MacLachlan as Josef K.
