HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Metamorphosis and Other Stories (2007)

by Franz Kafka

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
464652,998 (4.11)None
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.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
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. ( )
  audient_void | Jan 6, 2024 |
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. ( )
  Ghost_Boy | Aug 25, 2022 |
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. ( )
1 vote nosajeel | Jun 21, 2014 |
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. ( )
  Narshkite | Nov 19, 2013 |
This is a fantastic book, with a translation that is wonderful and revelatory. Like everyone, I read Kafka in high school and college, but this new translation makes it seem new again. Highly recommended even if you know Kafka. ( )
  Laura400 | Jun 24, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Kafka, Franzprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Harkham, SammyCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hofmann, MichaelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Contains

Resolutions by Franz Kafka (indirect)
Passers-by by Franz Kafka (indirect)
On the Tram by Franz Kafka (indirect)
Clothes by Franz Kafka (indirect)
Unhappiness by Franz Kafka (indirect)
Eleven Sons by Franz Kafka (indirect)
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
There are several anthologies with the same name but different contents. The Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition contains the following stories:

Contemplation (1913)
The judgement: a story for F. (1913)
The stoker: a fragment (1913)
Metamorphosis (1913)
In the penal colony (1919)
A country doctor: short prose for my father (1920)
A hunger-artist: four stories (1924)

Please do not combine with works that contain a different selection of stories.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

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.

Book description
Haiku summary

Legacy Library: Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.

See Franz Kafka's legacy profile.

See Franz Kafka's author page.

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.11)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2 2
2.5
3 9
3.5 3
4 27
4.5 6
5 22

Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,239,126 books! | Top bar: Always visible