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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz…
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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories

by Franz Kafka

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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1,223135,925 (4.05)12
  1. 10
    Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (Anonymous user)
    Anonymous user: A similar collection of short works where faceless bureaucracy runs roughshod and the borders of reality seem tenuous. It's unknown whether Krzhizhanovsky ever read Kafka, but it seems likely.
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English (11)  Spanish (2)  All languages (13)
Showing 1-5 of 11 (next | show all)
Just got the Barnes & Noble 2003 edition for my daughter.Wonder why I cannot add that edition to my shelves as well. Annoying.




Ok well apart from Metamorphosis (which is brilliant), I'm not that impressed. Several of the stories are basically just a paragraph or two...mere observations...well done, but ho hum. The Stoker was interesting and leaves you hanging wanting more. I actually really preferred reading the Introduction by Michael Hofmann who translated this edition. ( )
  velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |
Reading Kafka in Prague: that was luxurious.
Metamorphosis is not about change, it is about the human beings' selfishness, it is about close people who are supposed to love us, disposing of oneself when one is not useful anymore. No matter what problems you have, life goes on around you, you are left behind, and sooner or later, you have to face your destiny, which is to die alone.
In the other stories, there is always a common theme: oppressiveness and critical metaphors about life and love. And an impossibility to make things better; all the characters are introduced as mere spectators who witness the inevitable development of their lives, they all are people who will live as slaves because of their imperfections and they won't never reach fulfilment; frustration and despair their only companions.
Kafka had a great mind, his storytelling is unbinding and claustrophobic but, as it happened to me while reading Woolf not long ago, you can not stop reading, he involves you in his dark net, leading you to to an impossible happy ending. Anxiety and admiration is what I felt while reading his works. Beware of that. ( )
  Luli81 | Jul 28, 2012 |
This was my favorite book I read for my World Lit II class. Gregor Samsa and the story his abrupt change stirred me in ways I wasn't expecting. At the end of the semester, my professor asked the class to write a short essay about whatever piece we liked best. This is the work I chose, and I ended up writing the most personal essay I've ever handed in on a college level. I'm not going to share that here on the big bad internet, but I just want to say that this little story had a huge impact on me. I'm now a Kafka fan for life.
  leirali | Feb 18, 2012 |
I didn't really like the translation, it makes it a bit hard to read at times. The sentences are all put together in long paragraphs which makes it boring and confusing. ( )
  hayfa | Aug 1, 2011 |
There's something remarkable about holding the entire output that an author published during his lifetime in one normal length book. Of course much of Franz Kafka's reputation rests on the three novels that were published after his death and against his explicit instructions.

There's also something depressing about this particular volume, and I'm not talking about the stories, many of which are really quite comic. What is depressing is that the stories are arranged chronologically and for the most part they keep getting better and better. Until Kafka's relatively short life ended.

Particularly striking is The Stoker, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, some of the stories in the collection A Country Doctor, and then the stories in the collection A Hunger Artist, particularly the title story, First Sorrow, and Josefine, the Singer, or The Mouse People. Other than Metamorphosis they were all new to me and the precise attention to odd details that have an internal logic but do not correspond to any world we actually know, the strange predicaments of the characters, the precise psychological characterization of alternative viewpoints, all added up to something that really is quite amazing. ( )
  jasonfurman | May 15, 2011 |
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Om man vid något tillfälle känner att man inte riktigt passar in kan man finna tröst och oanade tolkningsmöjligheter i den här boken.
added by pilvi | editDN, pilvi
 

» Add other authors (41 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Franz Kafkaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Pasley, MalcolmTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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This LT Work contains:

"A Message from the Emperor";
"The Metamorphosis";
"The Judgement";
"The Stoker";
"A Country Doctor";
"An Old Leaf";
"A Hunger Artist";
"Josephine the Singer, or The Mouse People";
"Before the Law."

Please do not combine this Work with editions having different contents. Thank you.
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0199238553, Paperback)

It is one of the most memorable first lines in all of literature: "When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin." So begins Kafka's famous short story, The Metamorphosis. Kafka considered publishing it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. The Judgment explores an enigmatic power struggle between a father and son, while In the Penal Colony examines questions of power, justice, punishment, and the meaning of pain in a colonial setting. These three stories are flanked by two very different works. Meditation, the first book Kafka published, consists of light, whimsical, often poignant mood-pictures, while the autobiographical Letter to his Father analyzes his difficult relationship with his father in devastating detail. This new translation by Joyce Crick pays particular attention to the nuances of Kafka's style, and the Introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson provide guidance to this most enigmatic and rewarding of writers. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:57:22 -0500)

(see all 6 descriptions)

Translated from the German and edited by Malcolm Pasley.

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Penguin Australia

Two editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 014118812X, 0143105248

 

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