My Neighbor
Franz Kafka short story
"My Neighbor" ("Der Nachbar", literally "The Neighbor") is a short story by Franz Kafka. It was written in 1917 and published in 1931 in Berlin by Max Brod and Hans-Joachim Schoeps. The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections (New York City: Schocken Books, 1946).
The main character of the story is a young merchant who initially pretends to be self-assured but finds himself threatened by his new neighbor and possible competitor, Harras.
Analysis
The narrator wants to find out more details about the life and the activities of his new neighbor Harras. He assumes that Harras wants to harm him commercially, possible even ruin him. He does not speak to Harras but makes inquiries, finding no more than that he is a "young and emerging man" like himself. He is suspicious because Harras is always in a hurry and does not seem interested in a conversation.
The public source identifies “My Neighbor” as franz Kafka short story. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Neighbor, Franz and Kafka.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1195963. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1931, 1933 and 1946.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “My Neighbor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.