Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis - an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life - including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door - becomes increasingly unpredictable.

As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. This is a stunning new Clothbound Classics edition of Kafka's major novel, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith and translated by Idris Parry.

These delectable and collectible Penguin editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design.