The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Dover Thrift Editions: Short Stories)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486290301 ISBN 13: 9780486290300

Publisher: Dover Publications, 1996

Since his death in 1924, Kafka has come to be regarded as one of the greatest modern writers, one whose work brilliantly explores the anxiety, futility, and complexity of modern life. The precision and clarity of Kafka's style, its powerful symbolism, and his existential exploration of the human condition have given his work universal significance.
In addition to the title selection, considered by many critics Kafka's most perfect work, this collection includes "The Judgment," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," and "A Report to an Academy." Stanley Appelbaum has provided excellent new English translation of the stories and a brief Note placing them within Kafka's oeuvre.
A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

From the Publisher:

"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 inadequecy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the mosst 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."

From the Inside Flap:

A brilliant, darkly comic reimagining of Kafka?s classic tale of family, alienation, and a giant bug.

Acclaimed graphic artist Peter Kuper presents a kinetic illustrated adaptation of Franz Kafka?s The Metamorphosis. Kuper?s electric drawings?where American cartooning meets German expressionism?bring Kafka?s prose to vivid life, reviving the original story?s humor and poignancy in a way that will surprise and delight readers of Kafka and graphic novels alike.