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LA METAMORPHOSE, SUIVI DE : DANS LA COLONIE PENITENTIAIRE
- GenresClassics
96 pages, Pocket Book
Published November 5, 1998
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,169 books38.3k followersPrague-born writer Franz Kafka wrote in German, and his stories, such as "
The Metamorphosis
" (1916), and posthumously published novels, including
The Trial
(1925), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal world.
Jewish middle-class family of this major fiction writer of the 20th century spoke German. People consider his unique body of much incomplete writing, mainly published posthumously, among the most influential in European literature.
His stories include "The Metamorphosis" (1912) and " In the Penal Colony " (1914), whereas his posthumous novels include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927).
Despite first language, Kafka also spoke fluent Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of the French language and culture from Flaubert, one of his favorite authors.
Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague but after two weeks switched to law. This study offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings, and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of doctor of law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.
Writing of Kafka attracted little attention before his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels except the very short "The Metamorphosis." Kafka wrote to Max Brod, his friend and literary executor: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod told Kafka that he intended not to honor these wishes, but Kafka, so knowing, nevertheless consequently gave these directions specifically to Brod, who, so reasoning, overrode these wishes. Brod in fact oversaw the publication of most of work of Kafka in his possession; these works quickly began to attract attention and high critical regard.
Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling notebooks of Kafka into any chronological order as Kafka started writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, et cetera.
Kafka wrote all his published works in German except several letters in Czech to Milena Jesenská.
Jewish middle-class family of this major fiction writer of the 20th century spoke German. People consider his unique body of much incomplete writing, mainly published posthumously, among the most influential in European literature.
His stories include "The Metamorphosis" (1912) and " In the Penal Colony " (1914), whereas his posthumous novels include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927).
Despite first language, Kafka also spoke fluent Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of the French language and culture from Flaubert, one of his favorite authors.
Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague but after two weeks switched to law. This study offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings, and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of doctor of law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.
Writing of Kafka attracted little attention before his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels except the very short "The Metamorphosis." Kafka wrote to Max Brod, his friend and literary executor: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod told Kafka that he intended not to honor these wishes, but Kafka, so knowing, nevertheless consequently gave these directions specifically to Brod, who, so reasoning, overrode these wishes. Brod in fact oversaw the publication of most of work of Kafka in his possession; these works quickly began to attract attention and high critical regard.
Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling notebooks of Kafka into any chronological order as Kafka started writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, et cetera.
Kafka wrote all his published works in German except several letters in Czech to Milena Jesenská.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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September 12, 2025la couverture la plus moche que j’ai
(il va falloir que je le relise)
(il va falloir que je le relise)
May 20, 2022
C'est pour le moins étrange
Je ne suis pas bien sûr de ma notation étant donné que je viens tout juste de le finir. Mais l'histoire est tellement hors du commun.
Je pense avec aimé sans toutefois avoir accroché au style très particulier de Kafka
Je ne suis pas bien sûr de ma notation étant donné que je viens tout juste de le finir. Mais l'histoire est tellement hors du commun.
Je pense avec aimé sans toutefois avoir accroché au style très particulier de Kafka
July 2, 2025
Je ne sais pas pourquoi je m'étais mis ça en tête, mais je m'attendais à une écriture difficile, tout le contraire, j'ai trouvé ma lecture très plaisante et facile. J'ai apprécié ces petites aventures dans un fantastique tout de même sombre à mon goût. Mais j'avais envie de connaître la suite et de continuer ma lecture. J'ai trouvé les personnages caricaturaux et pour la plupart détestables, mais je suppose que c'est voulu. Un miroir et une dénonciation de la société intéressants, bien que certains passages soient d'une crudité un peu trop légère pour moi.
June 30, 2024
Grosse déception.
Je pensais franchement que ce livre me plairait parce que d'habitude j'aime beaucoup la littérature absurde, mais pour le coup, je n'ai pas du tout accroché. Je pense que c'est plus à cause d'une question de style et d'approche que du contenu en lui-même.
Toutefois, je doute que le livre mérite la note que je lui ai donnée puisqu'il y a de superbes réflexions, qui font d'ailleurs tout l'intérêt de ces nouvelles. Mais je me suis ennuyée à la lecture et je me vois difficilement mettre davantage d'étoile.
Désolée Kafka, j'avais envie d'aimer. Peut-être une autre fois.
Je pensais franchement que ce livre me plairait parce que d'habitude j'aime beaucoup la littérature absurde, mais pour le coup, je n'ai pas du tout accroché. Je pense que c'est plus à cause d'une question de style et d'approche que du contenu en lui-même.
Toutefois, je doute que le livre mérite la note que je lui ai donnée puisqu'il y a de superbes réflexions, qui font d'ailleurs tout l'intérêt de ces nouvelles. Mais je me suis ennuyée à la lecture et je me vois difficilement mettre davantage d'étoile.
Désolée Kafka, j'avais envie d'aimer. Peut-être une autre fois.
March 16, 2025
Je suis un peu déçue, la réflexion derrière est vraiment bien mais je crois que c’est simplement le style de l’auteur qui m’a pas fait accrocher. L’histoire aurait pu être plus poussée, il manquait quelque chose, c’était plat et j’aurais aimé que la psychologie des personnages soit plus développée.
August 11, 2023
Tragi-comique et absurde. 7/10
November 20, 2025
J'ai bien aimé La Métamorphose, un peu moins Dans La Colonie Pénitentiaire
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews