Cover of The metamorphosis

The metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka

4.2
(145 ratings)
224 pages1986Bantam BooksISBN 9780553213690

About this book

<i>“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” </i><br><br>With this  startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, <i>The  Metamorphosis</i>. It is the story of a  young man who, transformed overnight into a giant  beetlelike 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, <i>The  Metamorphosis</i> has taken its place as one  of the most widely read and influential works of  twentieth-century fiction. <br><br>As W.H. Auden wrote,  “Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.”

Publication Details

Publisher
Bantam Books
Published
1986
Pages
224
ISBN
9780553213690
Language
en

About Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (gelegentlich tschechisch František Kafka, 3. Juli 1883, Prag, Österreich-Ungarn-3. Juni 1924, Kierling, Österreich) war ein österreichisch-tschechoslowakischer Schriftsteller. Er gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Vertreter der Prager deutschen Literatur und der deutschsprachigen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Seine Werke – darunter die drei Romanfragmente *Der Process, Das Schloss* und *Der Verschollene* sowie zahlreiche Erzählungen – gehören zum Kanon der Weltliteratur. Kafkas Werke wurden zum größeren Teil erst nach seinem Tod und gegen seine letztwillige Verfügung von Max Brod veröffentlicht, einem engen Freund und Vertrauten, den Kafka zu seinem Nachlassverwalter bestimmt hatte. Kafkas Schilderungen unergründlich bedrohlicher, absurder Situationen haben zur Bildung des auch im außerliterarischen Kontext verwendeten Adjektivs „kafkaesk“ geführt. ---------- Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-language Jewish Czech writer and novelist born in Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature, his work fuses elements of realism and the fantastique, and typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surreal predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. The term Kafkaesque has entered the lexicon to describe situations like those depicted in his writings. His best-known works include the novella *The Metamorphosis* (1915) and the novels *The Trial* (1924) and *The Castle* (1926). His work has widely influenced artists, philosophers, composers, filmmakers, literary historians, religious scholars, and cultural theorists. ([Source][1].) [1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka

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