“Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.”

—  Franz Kafka , book The Trial

First lines, Ch. 1
Variant translation: Somebody must have slandered Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
Source: The Trial (1920)
Context: Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. His landlady's cook, who always brought him his breakfast at eight o'clock, failed to appear on this occasion. That had never happened before.

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Franz Kafka 266
author 1883–1924

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