The Metamorphosis
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First published in 1915, The Metamorphosis opens with one of the most unsettling transformations in modern literature: Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, awakens one morning to discover that he has become a monstrous insect. Confined to his bedroom and increasingly cut off from the human world, he watches as his family's initial concern gives way to fear, resentment and dependence. As Gregor's physical condition changes, the fragile arrangements of family life are exposed, revealing the loneliness and quiet desperation beneath ordinary domestic existence.
Written with Kafka's characteristic precision and dark, understated humour, the novella explores alienation, guilt, identity and the cruelty of conditional affection. Its strange premise is rendered with an almost matter-of-fact realism, making the impossible feel disturbingly familiar. A defining work of twentieth-century literature, The Metamorphosis remains one of Kafka's most influential writings and an extraordinary meditation on what it means to be human, and on how quickly society can withdraw its sympathy from those who no longer fulfil their expected roles.
From the book
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
— Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
On The Metamorphosis
“Arguably the most famous, also greatest, short story in the history of literary fiction.”
— Richard T Kelly, The Guardian (2015)