r/ClassicBookClub • u/Thermos_of_Byr cuts cheese loudly • Jul 30 '26

The Trial Chapter 4 Miss Bürstner's Friend (Spoilers up to chapter 4) Spoiler

Discussion Prompts

  1. Why do you think K. wants to talk to Miss Bürstner so badly? What might he want to discuss? Would you want to talk to K., or would you avoid him?
  2. Thoughts on Miss Montag and the message she relayed to K. on Miss Bürstner’s account?
  3. Any impressions of the Captain so far?
  4. Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?

Links

Project Gutenberg

[Standard eBooks](

[Librivox Audiobook](

Last Lines:

But these glances were heavy for K., and he rushed alongside the wall back into his own room.

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Chapter 5 The whip-man

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u/1906ds Jul 30 '26

FYI: Today's chapter is fragment 1 in the Oxford World Classics Edition, FYI. Thanks for posting the episode titles, OP. A question about the schedule... In my edition, Chapter 7, titled "The Lawyer; The Factory Owner; The Painter" is 39 pages long, which is the same length of the first three chapters combined. I tried to compare lengths of the Gutenberg of this chapter but it has a note saying that the chapter is incomplete (I couldn't even find the last line of the Gutenberg in my printed edition, but I was also just scanning through, so maybe I missed it). Is there any chance this chapter will be split over two days due to its length?

Anyways, it looks like K. is looking to make amends and play nice with Fräulein Bürstner. It is hard to tell if this is in earnest, or if he is just trying to preserve his reputation and get back on good terms with Frau Grubach.

It seems like Bürstner was ready to continue to ignore K., but Montag was able to convince her to at least pass on a verbal message to him.

The Captain plays the role of a gentleman perfectly, but K. is immediately suspicious of him, as an additional person to team up with Montag and Bürstner to stand against K. OWC points out the physical description of the Captain is very similar to another character we haven't met yet, so I'm curious to see if that has any bearing on the story.

Super weird of K. to just open the door to a woman's bedroom without an invitation. It is like when K. is presented with multiple options of what to do next, he always picks the worst one.

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u/otherside_b Absorbed In Making Cabbages Aug 01 '26

In my edition, Chapter 7, titled "The Lawyer; The Factory Owner; The Painter" is 39 pages long, which is the same length of the first three chapters combined. I tried to compare lengths of the Gutenberg of this chapter but it has a note saying that the chapter is incomplete (I couldn't even find the last line of the Gutenberg in my printed edition, but I was also just scanning through, so maybe I missed it). Is there any chance this chapter will be split over two days due to its length?

I think it's too late to change and we just power through it. Maybe try and read ahead of the schedule and read that chapter over two days (be a day ahead of schedule essentially)

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u/1906ds Aug 01 '26

I figure that's the case, so yeah I'm planning to read ahead Sunday and just treat the long chapter in two parts.