Experts to examine Franz Kafka's unseen documents

London, July 10 : Previously unseen documents belonging to the writer Franz Kafka, which remained locked away in his executor Max Brod's home in Tel Aviv for four decades, are to be examined by experts.

Since his death in 1968, Brod's secretary Esther Hoffe had been keeping the papers.

She refused to release them until her recent death at the age of 101.

Experts are still not sure whether the papers will be legible after so many years.

Franz Kafka, who died from tuberculosis aged 41, wanted all his manuscripts to be burnt after him.

However, Brod ignored Kafka's instruction, and it resulted in brooding novels of alienation, persecution and hopelessness like 'The Trial', 'Metamorphosis', and 'The Castle'.

Given that Kafka rarely finished any of his works, it is said that the published novels owe much to Brod's editing.

The Castle actually stopped mid-sentence.

These facts make experts believe that the unseen notes and documents may be very valuable.

A BBC report suggests that the documents were originally packed into two suitcases and smuggled out of Prague in 1939, just ahead of the German advance on the city.

Concerned authorities in Tel Aviv have warned that the damp in Hoffe flat, and the hoards of dogs and cats she kept might have damaged the papers.

ANI