The article is about the German novel by Franz Kafka. For other uses, see The Castle . The Castle is a philosophical novel by Franz Kafka. In it a protagonist, known only as K., strives to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle that governs the village where K. has arrived to work as a land surveyor. Dark and at times surreal, The Castle is about alienation, bureaucracy, and the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system. History of the novel Kafka began writing The Castle on the evening of January 22, 1922, the day he arrived at the mountain resort of Spindlermühle (now in the Czech Republic). A picture taken of him upon his arrival shows him by a horse-drawn sleigh in the snow in a setting reminiscent of The Castle."Franz Kafka & the trip to Spindemuhle", Eric Ormsby, The New Criterion,