The Metamorphasis and Other Stories

by Franz Kafka

Genres: Fiction, Classics

Paperback

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Cali · Rating 3 out of 5]

this happened to me once

[Gita · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird but good. the bones are there, but the style is nearly incoherent to read. perhaps it is the translation.

[emilymustdie · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly disappointing. i’ve always tried to like his work and i’ve realised after pushing through this collection of stories that his work simply isn’t for me. Kafka’s ideas are nothing short of perfect but i personally find his writing style insufferable to the point where i have to force myself through stories where the main plot line should be enchanting. I personally loved the judgement and the penal colony and found that the stories really shone through the writing. Overall it may just be an issue with the translation i read but i don’t think i’ll read anymore of his work because it feels like a chore. Kafkas ideas are charming and lighthearted whilst really leaving you thinking but it’s just not for me.

[Meiling Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

#JusticeforGregor

[M Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

thought provoking and absurd. loved.

[catie seegmiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh, kafka. we in it now.

[Hannah Boltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the hell, sure

[Thomas Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom 2 book challenge book 1

*waking up realizing I have bug legs and a bug body and I speak in bug*

Me: Fuck I’m gonna be late for work fuCK FUCK

[Ava Grefrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not suffering from clinical depression, I'm merely Kafkaesque.

[Trenton Class]

You can listen to this whole story on a drive to Santa Barbara and back.

[Mitch Holsinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be reading all of his books after this.

[lyn 🫐]

only read the metamorphosis but good reads hates me and doesn’t have that as an option.

[Tara Tanriverdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

had to wrap up Europe trip with some Kafka (as the praguers do)

TLDR: would you still love me if I was a [beetle]

2.6/5 in reality. Very AP Lit

[Harpinder Kang · Rating 5 out of 5]

BUG MAN

[Zarathustra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literally me lol :3

[Emi Fennessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

intriguing, depressing

[Lzabelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the Metamorphasis, not the Other Stories but it was quite a silly tale that made me laugh from the images it put in my head.

[Abs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gross. Repulsive. Riveting! I loved it and I found that the symbolism and the writing is so easy and clear. I loved it!

[sayf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story shows how society can treat individuals as disposable according to what function they serve / how useful they are.

Before the metamorphosis itself, Gregor was already isolated and only was “human” because he was able to provide for the family. This was innately known to him, consciously or not. The first thing he worried about after transforming was work, which shows his role/purpose/meaning to everyone around him.

After however, as time went on and survival and discomfort played its part with the family, I feel they did not make a cruel choice, but a hard choice that plays into human nature. The uncomfortable part of this story is that although it looks cruel and makes Gregor a sort of victim, as he had no control, i also cannot blame the family for doing so.

Of course it’s not right that Gregor’s worth is tied to being a breadwinner and nothing else within his own family, it’s still a lot reasonable choice of action rationally since he was “causing” problems.

Grete’s attitude toward Gregor also shows moral deterioration happening gradually, as the start she obviously was feeding him, learning what was to his liking, moving furniture out the way for him to crawl etc. she has remaining compassion in a ultimately collapsing situation.

However, evantually it turns into duty, instead of care, which in her head becomes more burdening than empathy. Because of her repeated exposure to the mute Gregor, her sympathy gradually desensitises, making it a task rather than caring for her brother.

And soon it becomes resentment instead of responsibility, and she decides he must go. In the end I think such a short story has shown a lot a lot of layers about society and human nature and how cruel, but human we can be at the same time.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book honestly felt like a little bit of a fever dream if I'm being honest. I went into it expecting there to be some kind of like, pre-bug at the beginning but nope it was straight into it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just surprised me a little. I've never read a book quite like it. It was definitely unique and I couldn't see at all where on earth they could possibly be going with this which I find is always pretty good in a book. But honestly, this is just me but it did leave me feeling a little bit underwhelmed. And while yes it was unique and had me feeling so so so bad for him by the end of it I just kind of put it down and was like..."Right...?" I didn't really understand the point of it. I understood like the things about him providing for his family and then the second he becomes unusual they like completely shun him, but I was still a little like, what just happened? I'm afraid all of the literary scholars are going to come for me but hey sorry guys maybe I'm just not as smart as I thought I was.

But that was nothing a little research couldn't fix, while it wasn't the most amazing and jaw-dropping thing I've ever read I still liked it and there's something so satisfying about being able to finish a book in one sitting.

Though I will say what I'm learning about classics is that it's more the message and the philosophy and thought behind them than the acctual plot itself, I find that this book would be great for someone who loves to analyse and read super deep into things and understand it with their whole soul, and while that could be fun for me I value books that have that but also a strong powerful plot behind them. I like to think but I don't so much enjoy ONLY being left to think ather than have a plot unfold before me if that makes sense.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I loved metamorphosis. I also really liked the judgement, in the penal colony, and the hunger artist. It feels like Kafka just has an idea and totally riffs off it wherever it goes. It sometimes felt sort of surrealist or like a fever dream. The low-ish star rating is for all the pieces together and it makes sense given I think he actually didn’t want most of these stories published. A lot of the short stories don’t really go anywhere and feel like a maladaptive daydream that he just wrote down. Like paints a scene but probably meant more to him than to me. I also hear that he was really good with words and this is a translation so I’d probably appreciate it more if I could read German.

[Jess Grootenboer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book read it while tanning but man it sits heavy. I was very confused at first why I was reading a book about a literal cockroach (idk if it was acc a roach but seemed like it) but it gives burnt out oldest sibling energy. I finished it and it made me never want to work in corporate America where you’re simply a shell of a human only as valuable as your physical well being. Shout out casey for the rec

[Rheona Mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

speaking on the metamorphosis specifically:
I absolutely love Kafkas style of writing, This being my first story of his was a great beginning to the journey. so gloomy and physically disturbing, the idea of the narrator dying and the narrative continuing is so interesting to me. I loved this story so much, as a life long cynic and empath, it spoke volumes

the confusing nature of kafkas writing, the lack of punctuation and formality, is so refreshing to me

[John Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Metamorphosis is a surreal work of genius. It is a domestic horror story. It is moving and sad. Metamorphosis tells us about attitudes to loss and pain. Kafka's flat prose makes the terrible almost mundane. Gregor's father throws an apple at his son. The apple lodges in his back and festers. Perhaps it is a metaphor for the lasting pain we can cause each other.
In length this story is barely a novela. In terms of the impact on the reader it is an epic.

[Khadim Gaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was short and sweet, just how I like them. It was engaging and had themes of sacrifice and betrayal, It was sad how Gregor's sister eventually gave up on him. It was even worse when he let himself starve in order to release the burden he left on his family, however it reinforced his true character.

[Paola · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - I enjoyed the analogy of metamorphosis and the alienation of human desire and development. Although this story wasn't plot heavy, the theme, relationships, characterization, and interactions were very interesting. The dynamics between the family members and one's own worth really shines through the metaphor. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the most memorable, compelling story.

[ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although translations inevitably fall short, and like with all collections there are high and low points, Kafka's writing is unfailingly human. The ideas, humour, and the emotionally raw narration gives even his more fantastical works a deeply relatable and personable air. Something something I'm feeling Kafkaesque.

[Naomi Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with some pretty epic short stories that would be a 5 (metamorphosis, penal colony, etc) but kinda tough bouncing between so many other unrelated short stories and without feeling very immersed in the story having it suddenly end

[Jade Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH my gosh do i love his writting skills!! he explains how random things that most people dont care about make us feel the most human!! AND THE WAY HE DESCRIBED FAMILY DYNAMICS WAS PWRFECT!!! amazing, EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS

[Kate Hankins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually so sad why would he write this. I love his sick mind. Loved how casual Gregor reacted to his new form and I loved his little bug habits being discovered. Everything else made me upset but in a good way I guess. Life is hard, especially as a beetle.