[...] Steffen's research is thorough; in this slim volume he discusses the major interpreters of Kafka, demonstrating how they skirt the issue of the theme of happiness without ever really discussing it in depth. […] Ultimately, this essay poses the question, not is Kafka or are his characters happy or unhappy, but rather can happiness and unhappiness be useful topics today in discussing literature. Are Goethe's characters happy, and if not, so what? Perhaps it is the case that, to paraphrase Tolstoy, unhappy characters are all unhappy in their own individual ways, but the reader will have to decide for herself whether we need a heavy philosophical template to speak of this.
Ruth V. Gross in „Journal of Austrian Studies“ (45:1-2/2012)
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