This collection features 12 stories by Franz Kafka, whose fiction is synonymous with the anguish of modern life, and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whose stories unfold in the same transcendent lyricism as his verse. Twelve of Kafka's tales from the compilation Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor), appear here, along with two tales from Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist). Rilke's stories include "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" (The Ballad of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke); "Die Turnstunde" (The Gym Class); and Geschichten vom lieben Gott (Stories About the Good Lord).