Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor

A rural physician recounts, in urgent, breathless detail, a late-night call to treat a young patient. The journey quickly slips into the uncanny when “unearthly horses” appear and carry him to the bedside in an instant, turning a routine visit into something dreamlike and disorienting.

Distracted by private resentments and the burdens of his role, he initially overlooks what proves to be a vile, fatal wound. The villagers, forever demanding the impossible of their doctor, subject him to public humiliation—leaving him condemned to an unending trip back, stripped of everything he had.