The Metamorphosis (AmazonClassics Edition)

One morning, traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes from an anxious dream to discover that he has inexplicably changed into a monstrous insect. Nonetheless, life goes on, and poor Gregor is left to deal not only with the existential questions of who or what he now is but also with more mundane concerns: his job (which he fears he’ll lose), his loved ones (whom he fears he disgusts), and the daily indignities of everyday life (which continue apace). Soon, even those who sympathize with his bizarre predicament begin to lose their patience…A darkly comic examination of social mores, family dynamics, and the nature of identity itself, Kafka’s unsettling masterpiece has inspired a century of literary debate and interpretive theories. But its enduring power lies in the simplicity of its audacious premise, its deadpan surrealism, and its humane sensitivity.Revised edition: Previously published as The Metamorphosis, this edition of The Metamorphosis (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

About the Author

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a Czech novelist and short story writer regarded as one of the leading figures of twentieth-century literature for such classics as The Trial, The Castle, and The Metamorphosis.Born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, Franz was an avid reader educated in Latin, Greek, chemistry, and law. He performed an obligatory year of service as a law clerk before devoting himself to a writing career. It was an endeavor that his parents found hopeless, and their disapproval would instill in Kafka enduring feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, and alienation. Attracting little attention during his lifetime, Kafka trusted that his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, would destroy his letters, journals, unpublished manuscripts, and unfinished novels. However, Brod overrode Kafka’s last wish, ensuring his friend’s posthumous legacy as one of the world’s most celebrated and influential writers.Ian C. Johnston is a translator, a professor emeritus at Vancouver Island University, and the author of The Ironies of War: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad. In addition to translating Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the prolific and versatile Johnston has translated classic works from Greek, Latin, German, and French, including those of Aristophanes, Diderot, Descartes, Euripides, Nietzsche, Rousseau, and Sophocles.

Reviews

News