Franz Kafka’s hidden papers revealed

Previously unseen documents and personal belongings of the writer Franz Kafka, which have lain unseen in a Tel Aviv flat for decades, may soon be revealed. The cache, which is expected to shed new light on the life and working methods of the Czech-Jewish writer, have been gathering dust in the home of Esther Hoffe, the former secretary of Kafka's friend and executor Max Brod since his death in 1968.

The documents have an interesting history. Despite repeated requests, Hoffe refused to hand over the papers, a decision which even led to her arrest on suspicion of smuggling the writings out of the country. Now, following her death at the age of 101, Kafka scholars are readying themselves for a literary bonanza.

The items date back to 1924, when Kafka died of tuberculosis in Vienna. Brod took over Kafka's estate, including several unpublished manuscripts, defying his friend’s instructions to destroy them. In 1939, the night before the Nazis entered Prague, Brod fled the city with two suitcases containing what he could manage to carry of the estate.

In 1961 he gave most of the manuscripts to the Bodleian library at Oxford University, but kept hold of The Trial claiming it was a gift to him from Kafka. Nearly 30 years later, Hoffe sold the manuscript the novel for £1m at Sotheby’s.

However, a note of caution has been sounded by authorities in Tel Aviv who say the papers, with their high sulphuric acid content, may have stood up poorly to conditions in Hoffe's damp flat.