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Loading... Metamorphosis and Other Stories (2007)by Franz Kafka
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Some of these are effective stories. Some seem to be just turning up the volume on socially awkward situations until they seem to take on some sort of metaphysical significance, but I'm not really buying that. The more baffling stories pretty much erase themselves from my memory a few minutes after I finish them. ( ) For the most part I still like Kafka's writing. I think he is a good writer, but not the best. Some stories like the title story "Metamorphosis" were the best in this collection. Then I found some others I didn't really care for or they went on a little too long. Some readers have said to me that Kafka was depressing, but I found most of his stuff comical in a witty sense or maybe what depresses others about Kafka doesn't depress me. I recommend Kafka to anyone, especially "Metamorphosis," but there are better short story writers out there. 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. I have a great deal of admiration for The Trial, but I had never read Kafka's other work. The Metamorphosis lives up to the hype and is a 5 star option for sure. It is poignant, funny, heartbreaking, honest and creepy all at the same time. Its literary genius leads me to give the collection 4 stars, but I will say the rest of what is here really weighs things down. Much of the content is fragments, which I found irritating. For me reading a disembodied paragraph is not like looking at a fragment from a sculpture, or looking at studies for a painting in that it tells me almost nothing about the whole work. The completed stories where fine, but none came close to the stunning work in The Trial and The Metamorphosis. So I guess what I am saying is skip the collection and just get The Metamorphosis on its own. no reviews | add a review
ContainsChildren on a Country Road by Franz Kafka (indirect) Unmasking a Confidence Trickster by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Sudden Walk by Franz Kafka (indirect) Resolutions by Franz Kafka (indirect) Excursion into the Mountains by Franz Kafka (indirect) Bachelor's Ill Luck by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Businessman by Franz Kafka (indirect) Absent minded window gazing by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Way Home by Franz Kafka (indirect) Passers-by by Franz Kafka (indirect) On the Tram by Franz Kafka (indirect) Clothes by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Rejection by Franz Kafka (indirect) Reflections for Gentlemen-Jockeys by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Street Window by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Wish to Be An Indian by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Trees [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect) Unhappiness by Franz Kafka (indirect) The New Advocate by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Country Doctor [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect) Up in the Gallery by Franz Kafka (indirect) An Old Manuscript by Franz Kafka (indirect) Before the Law [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect) Jackals and Arabs [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Visit to the Mine by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Next Village by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Message From the Emperor (Short Story) by Franz Kafka (indirect) The Cares of a Family Man by Franz Kafka (indirect) Eleven Sons by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Fratricide [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Dream (Short Stories) by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka (indirect) First Sorrow by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Little Woman by Franz Kafka (indirect) A Hunger Artist [short story] by Franz Kafka (indirect)
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; Meditation, a collection of his earlier studies; The Judgement, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; The Stoker, the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, The Aeroplanes at Brescia, Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)833.912Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. |