23.3 x 15.7 cm. 68 pages. Original half-leather binding with spine title and gilt head edges. - First edition. One of 1,000 copies, published as the 4th Drugulin print of the new series. Thematically, the story is directly related to Kafka's fragmentary novel "The Trial." Its main character, Joseph K., doubts the legitimacy of the charges brought against him by a court beyond his reach. His suspicion that a single executioner would suffice to replace this entire court seems to be realized in the story "In the Penal Colony" insofar as the author allows the barbaric process of a mechanical penal system to unfold, the irreversibility of which bears no relation to the guilt. A flawless copy in the sought-after half-leather edition. - Dietz 50. - Hemmerle p. 27. - Raabe 146.5.