Franz Kafka Audio & Video

The Metamorphosis (in German, Die Verwandlung, “The Transformation”) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915, and arguably the most famous of his works along with the longer works The Trial and The Castle.

Franz Kafka's classic short novel tells the strange tale of put-upon salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning transformed into an insect.

Franz Kafka's novella is a bonafide 20th century classic about a traveling salesman that wakes up one morning to find his body has been transformed into that of a giant dung beatle.

Joseph K. works at a bank and has no particular qualities or abilities. He could be anyone.

This new edition of Kafka’s terrifying and comic masterpiece is the product of an international team of experts that used Kafka’s original manuscript and notes to create this text that is as close as possible to the way the author left it.

This fine version, with David Cronenberg's inspired introduction and the new translator's beguiling afterword, is, I suspect, the most disturbing though the most comforting of all so far; others will follow, but don't hesitate: this is the transforming text for you.

This disturbing and vastly influential novel has been interpreted on many levels of structure and symbol; but most commentators agree that the book explores the themes of guilt, anxiety, and moral impotency in the face of some ambiguous force.

THE METAMORPHOSIS begins as its protagonist, Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning to find that he has become a huge insect. This change is understandably difficult for Gregor, not to mention his family and business. It ends up costing him his life.

Franz Kafka's The Castle is one of the greatest modern novels, famous for its dreamlike quality and its richness of interpretative possibility. The protagonist of the novel, K., is plunged into confusion and frustration when he arrives at a village to take up the job of a land surveyor that no-one seems to know anything about.

On his deathbed, Franz Kafka asked that all his unpublished manuscripts be burned....