Kafka in Marienbad
Kafka had first visited the spa town of Marienbad in western Bohemia on business during the war year of 1916. He liked the place so much that he decided to take a long holiday in the town in July of the same year. Kafka’s former fiancée Felice wanted to join him, so they hired two adjoining rooms in the elegant Hotel Schloß Balmoral und Osborne. Felice was already waiting for Kafka when he arrived in Marienbad on 3rd July. However, the first night was a disappointment for the author: “Unhappy night, impossible to live with F. Life with anyone unbearable. Don’t regret that; regret the impossibility of being alone.”
But soon things improved, Kafka’s headache disappeared, excursions were planned, and soon the couple decided, for the second time, to head down the aisle. They intended to make a life together in a Berlin suburb after the war, each to be concerned with “only their own economic worries”.
One should cheat nobody, not even the world of its victory.
Franz Kafka, Aphorisms
First day in Marienbad with Felice. Next door to each other with keys on both sides.
Franz Kafka to Max Brod
Then to Marienbad, very kindly met at the station by F. but still spent a desperate night in an ugly courtyard room. Monday moved into an extraordinarily lovely room, now staying as luxuriously as if it were really Balmoral Castle. And there I will try to cope with the holiday, will begin by treating the headache, which has never yet been quite successful.
Franz Kafka to Max Brod
