It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man.

"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre,yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man.

A harrowing--though absurdly comic--meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation,The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W. H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Translated and edited by Stanley Corngold, with generous critical materials including essays, notes, and selections from Kafka's letters and diaries.

Introduction by Stanley Comgold

The Metamorphosis translated by Stanley Comgold

 A Note on the Text

Explanatory Notes to the Text

Documents

 Letter by Kafka to Max Brod, October 8, 1912

 Sokel's Comments

 Two Conversations between Kafka and Gustav Janouch, 1920-1923

 Kaflca to His Father, November 1919

 Entries in Kaflca's Diaries

Critical Essays

 Wilhelm Emrich: Franz Ka

 Ralph Freedman: Kafka's Obscurity

 Edward Honig: The Making of AUegory

 Max Bense: Kaika's Conception (Thematik) of Being

 Hellmuth Kaiser: Kafka's Fantasy of Punishment

 Peter Dow Webster: Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" as Death and Resurrection Fantasy

 Walter H. Sokel: Education for Tragedy

 Friedrich Beissner: The Writer Franz Kafka

Kaika the Poet

Commentary

 Holmut Richter: "The Metamorphosis".

Selected Bibliography