Castle (novel)

Castle refers to multiple novels, requiring context to identify the specific work. Below are some notable examples:

• The Castle (Das Schloss) by Franz Kafka: An unfinished novel by Franz Kafka, published posthumously in 1926. The Castle tells the story of K., a land surveyor who arrives in a village seemingly controlled by the authorities of a castle, but is never able to gain access to the castle or communicate with its inhabitants. The novel explores themes of alienation, bureaucracy, the search for meaning, and the frustration of the individual against an opaque and incomprehensible system. The fragmented and ambiguous nature of the work has led to diverse interpretations and made it a significant work of modernist literature.

• Castle by Garth Nix: A novel in the Keys to the Kingdom series of children's fantasy novels by Garth Nix. In this series, "Castle" is the name of the setting, a vast, architecturally impossible structure at the heart of the series' cosmology. The "Castle" here is not just a building, but a realm, a governing body, and a complex system that must be understood and controlled.

When discussing the term "Castle" in the context of literature, clarity is needed to distinguish between Kafka's influential and allegorical work and other uses of the term in titles or as settings in other novels.