Product Description

Metamorphosis is Kafka's most famous story. In it he explores the notions of alienation and human loneliness by means of his extraordinary narrative technique and depth of imagination.

Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a repulsive bug. Trapped inside this hideous form, his mind remains unchanged – until he sees the shocked reaction of those around him and begins to question the basis of human love and, indeed, his entire purpose in existence. But this, it seems, is only the beginning of his ordeal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361742 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Inside Flap
In Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman by trade, awakens one morning to find his body has mutated into that of a repulsive bug. Outwardly a monstrous insect, only his thought processes remain human.

As his family grow accustomed to supporting themselves without his once essential income, Gregor’s suffering becomes ever more pronounced. He witnesses the corruption of their former dependence on him. Obliged to work to keep themselves and admit lodgers to their home, the Samsa family generates a disgust and a contempt for the creature that has supported them for so long, imprisoning Gregor in the stasis of an unused box room. His sister, Grete, to whom he was once so close, now wants to be rid of him, his father’s new industry leaves him no time to remember the transformed son he used to terrorise, and his loving mother now neglects him.

Metamorphosis is Kafka’s most famous short story, a work where, in the words of Vladimir Nabokov, ‘contrast and unity, style and matter, manner and plot are most perfectly integrated.’ This is a heart-rending dystopia in which love itself becomes alienated and repugnant. This volume also includes a number of other short stories by Kafka’s, all newly translated.

From the Back Cover
"Grete! Grete! You must go to the doctor’s at once. Gregor is ill. Fetch the doctor, quick. Did you hear Gregor talking just now?"
"That was the voice of an animal," said the chief clerk.

About the Author
Franz Kafka is a leading figure in twentieth-century literature. His remarkable narrative style has had enormous influence on many subsequent writers.

Martin Jarvis is one of Britain's most distinguished and versatile actors. He has narrated and produced audiobooks in the UK and is beginning to apply his narrating talents to audiobooks in the USA, as well.

Customer Reviews

Interesting read
I don't know all the metaphorical significance of this book, but I feel on the surface that the book is an intersting read, that you want to know what is going to happen to the family and especially the protagonist. You also feel for these people, which is, considering how short the story is, uncommon.
You have to read it to appreciate it, but it definately deserves a place as a classic.

Superb
Incredibly witty, Kafka's is a writer of a remarkable sense of humour. The excitement and the thrill mingled in a flavour of mystique made his stories supreme. Kafka is simply superb!! The metamorphosis reflects some of Kafka's most personal issues; in its brilliant manifesto it conveys a harsh critique against both family and society. For what is wrong with being different? What does it mean? How does it affect one's life when one suddenly becomes vulnerable and weak? The dun beetle, I believe most readers might have guessed what Kafka meant by its chief role. The metamorphosis is simply superb. A real masterpiece.

Here goes yet another interpretation
Metamorphosis is one of the most famous works in world literature, and possibly has the most memorable opening lines in the history of story telling, - 'As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning after disturbing dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect'. A standard interpretation of this allegorical tale is that Gregor's transformation from hard working travelling salesman, providing for his family, to a grotesque useless insect that provokes disgust and pity and ultimately rejection by his family, represents physical disability, and society's treatment of it. I can see this in the story, but I read Kafka as essentially portraying his nightmare of the barrier between the public and personal inner world being removed. The private mental life, with its sensitive and raw secrets, its ugly and embarrasing little features, the desires and instincts that we strive to keep hidden, and/or are forced to repress. The bug is the embodiment of the ugly and raw inside turned out, exposed for all the world to see. Particularly nightmarish for Gregor (kafka) is the fact that those who see are those he loves and whose rejecton he fears most of all - his family.
That a short story of less than one hundred pages allows so many interpretative possibilities stands as a testament to Kafka's unique power to draw the reader into a hypnotic world of dark archetypal imagery. Upon finishing this novella, you may feel as though awoken from disturbing dreams, dreams that will nevetheless have cast some strange new light on your waking day.