The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories

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From one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, the author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial- A collection that brings together the stories he allowed to be published during his lifetime, including his best-known tale of a man who wakes up transformed into an insect. To Max Brod, his literary executor, Kafka wrote- "Of all my writings the only books that can stand are these." "Kafka's survey of the insectile situation of young Jews in inner Bohemia can hardly be improved upon- 'With their posterior legs they were still glued to their father's Jewishness and with their wavering anterior legs they found no new ground.' There is a sense in which Kafka's Jewish question ('What have I in common with Jews') has become everybody's question, Jewish alienation the template for all our doubts. What is Muslimness What is femaleness What is Polishness These days we all find our anterior legs flailing before us. We're all insects, all Ungeziefer, now." -Zadie Smith, bestselling author of White Teeth and On Beauty

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Kafkas survey of the insectile situation of young Jews in inner Bohemia can hardly be improved upon: With their posterior legs they were still glued to their fathers Jewishness and with their wavering anterior legs they found no new ground. There is a sense in which Kafkas Jewish question (What have I in common with Jews) has become everybodys question, Jewish alienation the template for all our doubts. What is Muslimness What is femaleness What is Polishness These days we all find our anterior legs flailing before us. Were all insects, all Ungeziefer, now.
Zadie Smith

Kafka engaged in no technical experiments whatsoever; without in any way changing the German language, he stripped it of its involved constructions until it became clear and simple, like everyday speech purified of slang and negligence. The common experience of Kafkas readers is one of general and vague fascination, even in stories they fail to understand, a precise recollection of strange and seemingly absurd images and descriptionsuntil one day the hidden meaning reveals itself to them with the sudden evidence of a truth simple and incontestable.
Hannah Arendt

Author Bio

FRANZ KAFKA was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including "The Metamorphosis," "The Judgment," and "The Stoker." He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes.