Product Description

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ADAM THIRLWELL. One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His family is understandably perturbed and he finds himself an outsider in his own home. In 'Metamorphosis' and the other famous stories included here, Kafka explores the confusing nature of human experience with sly wit and compelling originality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316912 in Books
• Published on: 1992-02-01
• Original language: German
• Binding: Unknown Binding
• 240 pages

From the Publisher
'One of the few great and perfect works of poetic imagination written during this century' Elias Canetti

About the Author
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born into a Jewish family in Prague. In 1906 he received a doctorate in jurisprudence, and for many years he worked a tedious job as a civil service lawyer investigating claims at the state Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. He never married, and published only a few slim volumes of stories during his lifetime. Meditation, a collection of sketches, appeared in 1912; The Stoker: A Fragment in 1913; The Metamorphosis in 1915; The Judgement in 1916; In the Penal Colony in 1919; and A Country Doctor in 1920. Only a few of his friends knew that Kafka was also at work on the great novels that were published after his death from tuberculosis: America, The Trial, and The Castle.

Customer Reviews

Hard work but worth it
A restrained style of writing, a welcome change from too much 'pop fiction'. Sensitive, humane and disciplined, by no means an easy read but worth the effort. Amusing also in its matter-of-fact portrayal of bizarre events. You too will pity the man-turned-insect of the opening story.

What's all the fuss about?
After doing a Spanish American short story course at university, I was lucky enough to discover the Hispanic masters like Rulfo, Cortázar, García Márquez and, by extension, Borges. Following some extensive reading of the works of Borges, I came across his prose writings in 'The Total Library' in which he cited Kafka as one of the main influences on his ideas and literary techniques, and, thinking this was a great endorsement by a renowned author, bought this book. In October 2001. And I didn't finish it until yesterday (March 2002). It was that boring. I actually reread the article in 'The Total Library' again, just to make sure I'd read it properly, and, there it was, Borges endorsing these hideous stories...and then it all fell neatly into place. Borges hadn't actually tried to work along the same lines as Kafka, but wisely took another root, which I personally believe was a good career move.
Of the stories featured in this collection (Metamorphosis, The Great Wall of China, The Burrow, The Penal Settlement, and The Giant Mole), not one really stands out as being any good. Maybe Metamorphosis is somewhat original, albeit with a predictable twist at the end, and perhaps the same is true of The Penal Settlement, but The Burrow is just awful, and The Great Wall of China I can't even remember (thankfully). The Giant Mole wasn't mind-blowing either.
Anyway, if you have enough money to buy this, make sure you have the sense not too. If you want some short stories, good ones, get 'Collected Stories' by García Márquez, 'Labyrinths' or 'The Book of Sand' by Borges, or 'Blowup and other stories' by Cortázar, but spare yourself this collection!