Walter Herbert Sokel

Ralph Freedman

Edwin Honig

Wilhelm Emrich

Max Bense

Albert Lancaster Lloyd

Hellmuth Kaiser

Peter Dow Webster

Friedrich Beissner

Hellmut Richter

Franz Kafka

Writings by and about Kafka and textual notes accompany his translations of his early twentieth-century work about Gregor Samsa, an ordinary man who wakes up one morning only to discover that he has been transformed into a monstrous insect and must deal with his physical alteration, as well as the alienation from his family. Reprint.

Metamorphosis

Die Verwandlung

La Metamorfosis

Júlia San

die verwandlung

The metamorphosis

Nininin

Hardly aware of what he was doing other than a slight feeling of shame, he hurried under the couch.

'When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed' Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, Metamorphosis, the story of an ordinary man transformed into an insect, is brought together in this collection with the rest of his works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America; and a fascinating occasional piece, The Aeroplanes at Brescia, Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of his literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought. Translated with an Introduction by Michael Hofmann 'What Dante and Shakespeare were for the ages, Kafka is for ours.' George Steiner

Metamorphosis and Other Stories

Filip

Then, out of sheer delicacy, knowing that Gregor wouldn't be able to eat in front of her, she hurriedly left the room, even turning the key, just as a sign to Gregor that he could settle down and take his time over everything.

... his endeavours thus far had been a failure, that he should call a halt and come home - and thenceforth suffer himself to be stared at by everyone as a returnee - because it was only his friends who had known what to do with their lives, while he was an overgrown schoolboy, who would have done better to stick to what they, quite properly flourishing at home, now told him to do.

We're walking along without a care in the world, the wind is pushing through the gaps between us and our various limbs. Our throats feel free in the mountains! It's a miracle we haven't burst into song!

... when we find ourselves down on the street, with limbs that respond to the unexpected freedom they have come into with a particular suppleness, when by this one decision we feel all the decisiveness in us mobilized, when we recognize with uncommon clarity that we have more energy than we need to accomplish and to withstand the most abrupt changes, and when in this mood we walk down the longest streets – then for the duration of that evening we have escaped our family once and for all, so it drifts into vaporousness, whereas we ourselves, as indisputable and sharp and black as a silhouette, smacking the backs of our thighs, come into our true nature.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes." With its startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing-though absurdly comic-meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

The Metamorphosis

Mdy<3

"Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions"

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.

Context: He heard Grete playing the violin again.

"Was he an animal, if music could move him so?"

me when monthly crisis identity and another bunch of sleep medicine relapse hit

n.  littéraire

"I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself."

 Il vit encore, devant sa fenêtre, le jour arriver peu à peu. Puis sa tête retomba malgré lui et ses narines laissèrent faiblement passer son dernier souffle.

II pensa à sa famille avec une tendresse émue. L'idée qu'il n'avait plus qu'à disparaître était, si possible, plus arrêtée encore dans son esprit que dans celui de sa sœur.

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka best known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect subsequently struggling to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered.

The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka Annotated (Penguin Classics)

archie

I am too depressed at the moment, and perhaps I shouldn't be writing at all. But my story's hero has also had a very bad time today, and yet it is only the last lap of his misfortune, which is now becoming permanent.

Mimi

 "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense"

Bringing together some of Kafka's finest work, this collection demonstrates the richness and variety of the author's artistry.

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

fareez

Sometimes he looks at me, as if to say: ‘I’ll go with you, father.’ And then I think to myself: ‘You’d be the last man I’d entrust myself to.’ And then his look seems to say: ‘Well, then at least I’ll be the last.’

My grandfather was in the habit of saying: 'Life is astonishingly brief. By now it is all so condensed in my memory that I can hardly understand, for instance, how a young man can undertake to ride to the neighbouring village without wondering whether - even if everything goes right-the span of a normal happy life will be enough for such a ride.’

Isolation and lack of connection only results in the deterioration of one’s own humanity and sense of self? 

As he listened to these words of his mother, Gregor understood that the want of any direct human address, in combination with his monotonous life at the heart of the family over the past couple of months, must have confused his understanding, because otherwise he would not have been able to account for the fact that he seriously wanted to have his room emptied out. Was it really his wish to have his cosy room, comfortable furnished with old heirlooms, transformed into a sort of cave, merely so that he would be able to crawl around in it freely, without hindrance in an direction — even at the expense of rapid and utterly forgetting his human past?

Alison Deaner

As nobody could understand him, nobody, not even his sister

It occurred to him how simple everything would be if somebody came to help him.

Oriana andrade

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

He thought back on his family with tenderness and love. His opinion that he must by all means disappear was possibly even more emphatic than that of his sister. He remained in this state of empty, peaceful reflection until the clocktower struck the third hour of morning. He watched as everything began to lighten outside his window. Then his head sank all the way to the floor without volition and from his nostrils his last breath faintly streamed.

With a certain definitiveness he sensed, terrified, that everything was about to collapse all around him, and so he waited. 

“would you love me if i was a worm?” just more complicated

tuna

They had been good times and they had never come again, at least not with the same splendour

pocas cosas en la vida me han generado tales angustias como las que pasé al leer este libro

luca

Հակասություններ ամբողջ ստեղծագործության ընթացքում. ամեն ինչ և՛ բնական է, և՛ անտրամաբանական. կարծես արտասովոր դեպք է, բայց հենց այդպես էլ պետք է լիներ:

Lawton

Me desperté un día convertido en adulto funcional. Peor que ser un bicho.

Oliver

A man struggles to maintain his humanity when he transforms into a monstrous insect in this masterful novella by the celebrated author of The Trial. A young traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa is the sole breadwinner in his family—a role he can no longer fulfill when he awakes one morning to discover he has transformed into a “horrible vermin.” While Gregor is unable to communicate and forced to relearn how to move in his new body, his family is preoccupied with the question of their financial stability. Epitomizing the term “Kafkaesque,” the tale of Gregor and his absurd fate have become emblematic of modern existential dread. A truly iconic work, The Metamorphosis remains one of the most famous and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature.

ouch, pain, pighati, lumbay, hinagpis, kirot, hapdi, pagtangis, iyak, lungkot, siphayo, dalamhati, daing, luha, sawi…

Did I finish the book? Or did the book finish me?

Gregor gave everything to his family, and when he needed them, they shut him out.

They didn’t even try to understand him — they just tolerated his existence until they couldn’t anymore. And the worst part is... I kind of understand them.

It's painful to admit. But the way they were overwhelmed, exhausted, scared — Kafka doesn’t paint them as pure villains. Just human. (Damn you, capitalism)

And maybe that’s why this story hurts so much.

Did I finish the book? Or did the book finish me?

It's the latter

Gregor gave everything to his family, and when he needed them, they shut him out.

They didn’t even try to understand him — they just tolerated his existence until they couldn’t anymore. And the worst part is... I kind of understand them.

It's painful to admit. But the way they were overwhelmed, exhausted, scared — Kafka doesn’t paint them as pure villains. Just human. (Damn you, capitalism)

And maybe that’s why this story hurts so much.

A Metamorfose

Obra de arte. Não consigo parar de chorar.

Noro

Al descubrir que se había transformado en un bicho, su primera preocupación fue no llegar al tarde al trabajo.

La sensación de encierro, de rechazo, de volverse irrelevante, está escrita con una frialdad que te duele. No hay drama, solo abandono seco. Y lo terminas y te quedas como "ya se acabó?… ya no hay más?… eso era todo?".

Kafka escribió una pesadilla tranquila. No da miedo como un monstruo, da miedo como un lunes eterno.

9/10 porque todavía no sé si me gustó o si solo me arruinó poquito.

nieves

Al descubrir que se había transformado en un bicho, su primera preocupación fue no llegar al tarde al trabajo.

La sensación de encierro, de rechazo, de volverse irrelevante, está escrita con una frialdad que te duele. No hay drama, solo abandono seco. Y lo terminas y te quedas como "ya se acabó?… ya no hay más?… eso era todo?".

Kafka escribió una pesadilla tranquila. No da miedo como un monstruo, da miedo como un lunes eterno.

Lectura corta. Daño largo.

9/10 porque todavía no sé si me gustó o si solo me arruinó poquito.

It pains me to feel useless and disgusting in this ever fabricated world.

merliah

Kaarthik sekar 

Luca Colaluce

In basic words, I cried. Not literally, however my heart broke. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. I had some hope when the charwoman was introduced, I really thought she’d be the one to love and nurture him as he deserved and though she wasn’t fully disrespectful to him, I was disappointed. Maybe I am taking this much too personal because I myself am also the oldest, breadwinner of my family. I feel so empathetic towards him. The story is beautifully written, the motifs and biblical similarities are gorgeous. Heart wrenching for sure, I don’t think I could ever get over it.

lindura

read this on the plane back to cph, felt really pretentious but it was worth it. would read again

camille paradis

very intriguing read! gregor's descent into depression, spurred on by the isolation he felt from his family, was honestly relatable to me and very saddening to read. i was a bit nauseous when trying to imagine a giant cockroach scuttling around the walls and ceiling, but all in all this was an enjoyable and enlightening read.

kaii

Charlotte Helie 

Read this for book group. Obviously it’s a great little book - it’s Kafka. Left me very depressed about capitalism, society and disability. Which was probably the point!

Naomi J.

Very sad and intense book. By the end, I just wanted to get it over with. I was very annoyed with the character development of the people around the main character.

eryc

Donut!

Beautiful representation of suffering and the feeling of being useless, the way Kafka writes is like no other

Ester Waclavova

The history took me to thing in so many situation in our life, like when someone is seek or incapacitated and the family and other people have to take care and spending time, the financial issues carried by incapacitated people, so in general it's a good book.

Vitor Quintela 

It was both an unsettling and thought-provoking read.

Its exploration of alienation, identity, and the fragility of human relationships was deeply saddening yet captivating. 

The story, which can be interpreted as a trans allegory or as a broader reflection on societal rejection, challenges the reader to empathise with Gregor’s plight while grappling with the discomfort it evokes.

Kafka’s writing style is a bit challenging at first, but it grew on me; revealing layers of meaning beneath its surreal narrative. 

nullptr

It was both an unsettling and thought-provoking read.

Its exploration of alienation, identity, and the fragility of human relationships was deeply saddening yet captivating. 

The story, which can be interpreted as a trans allegory or as a broader reflection on societal rejection, challenges the reader to empathise with Gregor’s plight while grappling with the discomfort it evokes.

Kafka’s writing style is a bit challenging at first, but it grew on me; revealing layers of meaning beneath its surreal narrative. 

Read it for a second time and is growing so much in me like what Gregor Samsa lived in.

Metamorphosis

Reviews

Highlights