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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
It is one of the most memorable first lines in all of literature: "When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin." So begins Kafka's famous short story, The Metamorphosis. Kafka considered publishing it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. The Judgment explores an enigmatic power struggle between a father and son, while In the Penal Colony examines questions of power, justice, punishment, and the meaning of pain in a colonial setting. These three stories are flanked by two very different works. Meditation, the first book Kafka published, consists of light, whimsical, often poignant mood-pictures, while the autobiographical Letter to his Father analyzes his difficult relationship with his father in devastating detail. This new translation by Joyce Crick pays particular attention to the nuances of Kafka's style, and the Introduction and notes by Ritchie Robertson provide guidance to this most enigmatic and rewarding of writers. There is also a Biographical Preface, an up-to-date bibliography, and a chronology of Kafka's life.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
224 pages, Paperback
Published December 11, 2021
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About the author
Franz Kafka
3,398 books39.1k followersFranz 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
October 10, 2018
In addition to a short biography and timeline of the author's life, this collection contains an Introduction by Jason Baker, a translator's afterword by Donna Freed, Endnotes, notes on works inspired by Kafka, Comments/Questions, and Suggestions for Further Reading, as well as the following stories:
A Message from the Emperor - 3/5 - There is an interesting piece in the Atlantic Monthly that describes how this very short parable can be used to define the term "Kafkaesque" (read it here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...). The parable itself is also contained within the short story The Great Wall of China which is not included in this collection.
The Metamorphosis - 5/5 - the author's most famous and perhaps most highly regarded work, the story of Gregor Samsa's transformation into a giant insect is open to interpretation, awakening in the reader feelings of isolation, rejection and despair
The Judgment - 5/5 - astonishingly powerful and thought-provoking exploration of father-son dynamics that was written in a single sitting
The Stoker - 4/5 - in the first chapter of Kafka's unfinished "Amerika" a young man arriving in America encounters a mistreated stoker; stands alone as a fragment and we can see the author's usual themes of alienation and injustice
In the Penal Colony - 4/5 - very grim and bleak story about a penal colony machine invented for carrying out final judgments
A Country Doctor - 3/5 - absurdist existentialism?
An Old Leaf - 3/5 - very short story about nomads taking over a town when the central government can't be bothered to get involved
A Hunger Artist - 3/5 - Kafka's "alienated artist" stories are much less compelling than his earlier works
Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk - 3/5 - see above
Before the Law - 3/5 - stand alone fragment from Kafka's novel "The Trial" which was originally published on its own before the novel was posthumously published
A Message from the Emperor - 3/5 - There is an interesting piece in the Atlantic Monthly that describes how this very short parable can be used to define the term "Kafkaesque" (read it here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...). The parable itself is also contained within the short story The Great Wall of China which is not included in this collection.
The Metamorphosis - 5/5 - the author's most famous and perhaps most highly regarded work, the story of Gregor Samsa's transformation into a giant insect is open to interpretation, awakening in the reader feelings of isolation, rejection and despair
The Judgment - 5/5 - astonishingly powerful and thought-provoking exploration of father-son dynamics that was written in a single sitting
The Stoker - 4/5 - in the first chapter of Kafka's unfinished "Amerika" a young man arriving in America encounters a mistreated stoker; stands alone as a fragment and we can see the author's usual themes of alienation and injustice
In the Penal Colony - 4/5 - very grim and bleak story about a penal colony machine invented for carrying out final judgments
A Country Doctor - 3/5 - absurdist existentialism?
An Old Leaf - 3/5 - very short story about nomads taking over a town when the central government can't be bothered to get involved
A Hunger Artist - 3/5 - Kafka's "alienated artist" stories are much less compelling than his earlier works
Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk - 3/5 - see above
Before the Law - 3/5 - stand alone fragment from Kafka's novel "The Trial" which was originally published on its own before the novel was posthumously published
March 3, 2024
I love Franz Kafka
May 20, 2017
Wow, what an incredible selection of satirical, philosophical and existential stories by Franz Kafka. Unbelievable insight into the human condition, with great humour and philosophical depth. This is certainly due a re-read, each year. Genius writing and even more genius imagination. Quite possibly the greatest short story collection you'll ever read.
September 12, 2018
*Spoiler Alert*
Sebenarnya selepas selesai aku baca novella ni aku terfikir apa yang legend sangat pasal Franz Kafka sampai Thukul Cetak sanggup terjemahkan karya dia. Sebab aku rasa kisah2 dia biasa2 je, berpengajaran (of course) dan pelik. Kemudian aku pun bedahlah sikit dengan tonton satu review di Youtube oleh tuan Joseph Schingen. Patut la kisah metamorfosis ni epik!
1. Walaupun Joseph Schingen ni dikecam sebagai pro-feminist tapi aku rasa dari beberapa interpretasi yang aku baca, dia punya la yang paling senang faham, juga disokong oleh Nina Pelikan Straus & Volker Drüke yang punya pandangan yang sama iaitu Kafka sebenarnya nak sampaikan tentang kuasa wanita secara halus di tahun 1915 di mana wanita masih dianggap sebagai suri rumah sahaja!
2. Secara ringkas, ini kisah mengenai Grego Samsa, seorang lelaki yg kerja keras utk keluarga dia iaitu mak ayah dan adik perempuan dia Grete. Tiba2 dia bangun pagi dia jadi KUMBANG!!!
3. Yang peliknya, kalau kau la jadi kumbang, mesti kau terus gila, panik habis, nangis2 apa semua tapi Grego Samsa cuma fikir macam mana dia nak pergi kerja hari ni, dia kurang risau (memang fiksyen yg tak logik kan)
4. Tapi menurut Schingen & beberapa pengkritik lain, ni nak menunjukkan yg Gregor ni terlalu konfiden yg dia seorang je BREADWINNER dalam keluarga, apa jadi pun dia nak kerja jugak utk famili dia. Dia mesti!
5. Menurut Schingen, unsur biblikal juga diselitkan iaitu ketika ayah Gregor marah kat dia, dia baling epal (menurut injil, Nabi Adam makan buah epal & binasa) kat Gregor menyebabkan epal tu lekat kat badan dia tak boleh cabut (macam adam's apple) yg menjadi punca kesihatan Gregor merosot secara perlahan-lahan.
6. Ringkasnya, metamorfosis ( the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.) sebenarnya bukan berlaku pada Gregor, tapi pada adik dia Grete. Yg pada mulanya seorang gadis yg tak tau apa-apa, mula berubah apabila Gregor dah tak boleh cari duit dah. Dia mula memasak, mengemas rumah, berkerja, mula banyak bercakap hal2 penting keluarga utk menggantikan tempat abangnya yg dah jadi serangga.
7. Jadi, di zaman 1915, Kafka mengatasi zamannya dengan secara halus menyampaikan mesej tentang wanita pun boleh jadi BREADWINNER kepada sesebuah keluarga, bukan lelaki sahaja. Ada byk lagi teori tapi yg ni la paling aku faham.
Dalam ni ada 2 kisah lagi yg lagi la banyak mesej2 halus Kafka, tuan2 puan2 boleh la study sendiri. Cuma kelemahan penterjemahan je yang patut diperbaiki, gaya bahasa yg digunakan agak keras dan kurang berseni menyebabkan proses pembacaan agak membosankan. Cuma makin lama makin baik penterjemahannya. Nasib baik kisahnya menarik.
Sebenarnya selepas selesai aku baca novella ni aku terfikir apa yang legend sangat pasal Franz Kafka sampai Thukul Cetak sanggup terjemahkan karya dia. Sebab aku rasa kisah2 dia biasa2 je, berpengajaran (of course) dan pelik. Kemudian aku pun bedahlah sikit dengan tonton satu review di Youtube oleh tuan Joseph Schingen. Patut la kisah metamorfosis ni epik!
1. Walaupun Joseph Schingen ni dikecam sebagai pro-feminist tapi aku rasa dari beberapa interpretasi yang aku baca, dia punya la yang paling senang faham, juga disokong oleh Nina Pelikan Straus & Volker Drüke yang punya pandangan yang sama iaitu Kafka sebenarnya nak sampaikan tentang kuasa wanita secara halus di tahun 1915 di mana wanita masih dianggap sebagai suri rumah sahaja!
2. Secara ringkas, ini kisah mengenai Grego Samsa, seorang lelaki yg kerja keras utk keluarga dia iaitu mak ayah dan adik perempuan dia Grete. Tiba2 dia bangun pagi dia jadi KUMBANG!!!
3. Yang peliknya, kalau kau la jadi kumbang, mesti kau terus gila, panik habis, nangis2 apa semua tapi Grego Samsa cuma fikir macam mana dia nak pergi kerja hari ni, dia kurang risau (memang fiksyen yg tak logik kan)
4. Tapi menurut Schingen & beberapa pengkritik lain, ni nak menunjukkan yg Gregor ni terlalu konfiden yg dia seorang je BREADWINNER dalam keluarga, apa jadi pun dia nak kerja jugak utk famili dia. Dia mesti!
5. Menurut Schingen, unsur biblikal juga diselitkan iaitu ketika ayah Gregor marah kat dia, dia baling epal (menurut injil, Nabi Adam makan buah epal & binasa) kat Gregor menyebabkan epal tu lekat kat badan dia tak boleh cabut (macam adam's apple) yg menjadi punca kesihatan Gregor merosot secara perlahan-lahan.
6. Ringkasnya, metamorfosis ( the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.) sebenarnya bukan berlaku pada Gregor, tapi pada adik dia Grete. Yg pada mulanya seorang gadis yg tak tau apa-apa, mula berubah apabila Gregor dah tak boleh cari duit dah. Dia mula memasak, mengemas rumah, berkerja, mula banyak bercakap hal2 penting keluarga utk menggantikan tempat abangnya yg dah jadi serangga.
7. Jadi, di zaman 1915, Kafka mengatasi zamannya dengan secara halus menyampaikan mesej tentang wanita pun boleh jadi BREADWINNER kepada sesebuah keluarga, bukan lelaki sahaja. Ada byk lagi teori tapi yg ni la paling aku faham.
Dalam ni ada 2 kisah lagi yg lagi la banyak mesej2 halus Kafka, tuan2 puan2 boleh la study sendiri. Cuma kelemahan penterjemahan je yang patut diperbaiki, gaya bahasa yg digunakan agak keras dan kurang berseni menyebabkan proses pembacaan agak membosankan. Cuma makin lama makin baik penterjemahannya. Nasib baik kisahnya menarik.
June 20, 2011
I'd never read any Kafka before, but the concept that his writing lends his name to is impossible to avoid in modern culture. I did find the title story to be one of the best in the bunch (and I found the ending satisfying,) though I thought his breakthrough story, The Judgment, to be incredibly silly. The stories I enjoyed otherwise were In The Penal Colony, A Hunger Artist and Josephine. The very short pieces I found delightfully (if that word can be used to describe Kafka) atmospheric. Overall, a good collection, and I'm glad the translator chose to keep the same basic cadences of the original.
My main quibble with this book has little to do with the content, but with its influence. Kafka at his best makes you question how you choose to lead your existence, but at his worst made me, at least, impatient with the senseless helplessness of the protagonist. It reminded me all too vividly of one of the worst novels I'd ever had to struggle through: Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. Now I know who to thank for inspiring that abomination.
My main quibble with this book has little to do with the content, but with its influence. Kafka at his best makes you question how you choose to lead your existence, but at his worst made me, at least, impatient with the senseless helplessness of the protagonist. It reminded me all too vividly of one of the worst novels I'd ever had to struggle through: Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled. Now I know who to thank for inspiring that abomination.
January 25, 2026
What if you suddenly found that you could not leave your bed? What if, one day, you could barely work, thus losing the only financial support your family had? What if you lost your humanity within the course of a month, your body now a burden to your family because you're too much of an issue to bother to keep alive?
What if one day you woke up and found that you were turned into a bug?
This is the first book to ever make me cry. I didn't pay attention to whatever translation is best, and just got a version off of thriftbooks without bothering to check, so I have no idea if it was the "best." It doesn't matter anyways; my heart was broken regardless. At a time where more and more people are realizing that their bodies are only deemed worthy by society if they're productive and contributing financially, Franz Kafka's absurdist and existential horror hits a little too close to home. Seeing how quickly Gregor's family gave up on him, how easily they stripped away his humanity in the course of a month, stings. A rotten apple and the turn from "he" to "it" adds salt to the wound.
This can so clearly relate to mental or physical illness. When you are depressed, or sick, or paralyzed with anxiety and paranoia and you cannot leave your room, when you begin to wallow in your own filth, saving what little energy you have to resemble a human life rather than clean, it is easy to consider yourself a burden in a word if you cannot "contribute" to society, even more so if your family exists just outside the room. It hurts, to say the least.
And so, we may relate to Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis more than we may realize.
What if one day you woke up and found that you were turned into a bug?
This is the first book to ever make me cry. I didn't pay attention to whatever translation is best, and just got a version off of thriftbooks without bothering to check, so I have no idea if it was the "best." It doesn't matter anyways; my heart was broken regardless. At a time where more and more people are realizing that their bodies are only deemed worthy by society if they're productive and contributing financially, Franz Kafka's absurdist and existential horror hits a little too close to home. Seeing how quickly Gregor's family gave up on him, how easily they stripped away his humanity in the course of a month, stings. A rotten apple and the turn from "he" to "it" adds salt to the wound.
This can so clearly relate to mental or physical illness. When you are depressed, or sick, or paralyzed with anxiety and paranoia and you cannot leave your room, when you begin to wallow in your own filth, saving what little energy you have to resemble a human life rather than clean, it is easy to consider yourself a burden in a word if you cannot "contribute" to society, even more so if your family exists just outside the room. It hurts, to say the least.
And so, we may relate to Gregor Samsa's metamorphosis more than we may realize.
November 12, 2022
I only read The Metamorphosis but I will come back to read more of the short stories included here.
A young man awakens in his childhood bed about to go to work and finds that he is very different today than he was yesterday. He can hear the demands of his life but no longer participate in the rituals. In fact, his appearance is now that of a grotesque bug that ordinarily everyone wants to squash, but he is hoping they will treat him differently.
This was quite a startling concept for a story and while the author doesn’t quite confirm the symbolism, Gregor’s transformation could quite aptly represent a myriad of changes that a person can undergo that our society doesn’t accept. While I was reading, I was imagining the young man having a mental breakdown that his family is incapable of dealing with, although bless her heart, his sister tries and the parents just seem to be too ancient, too stuck, to move past how it will appear to the neighbors.
Brilliant metaphors and reverse personification, how the family is able to justify their treatment of him as the situation continues and wears on them personally.
I love the introduction of the “three not-so-wise men” who do everything that the magi didn’t.
Again, great symbolism in this story even if I’m not sure what Kafka intended it to be an allegory for.
I alternated between reading the print from this edition and the free online version on Project Gutenberg. There is some difference in tone but the story comes across in a similar way.
A young man awakens in his childhood bed about to go to work and finds that he is very different today than he was yesterday. He can hear the demands of his life but no longer participate in the rituals. In fact, his appearance is now that of a grotesque bug that ordinarily everyone wants to squash, but he is hoping they will treat him differently.
This was quite a startling concept for a story and while the author doesn’t quite confirm the symbolism, Gregor’s transformation could quite aptly represent a myriad of changes that a person can undergo that our society doesn’t accept. While I was reading, I was imagining the young man having a mental breakdown that his family is incapable of dealing with, although bless her heart, his sister tries and the parents just seem to be too ancient, too stuck, to move past how it will appear to the neighbors.
Brilliant metaphors and reverse personification, how the family is able to justify their treatment of him as the situation continues and wears on them personally.
I love the introduction of the “three not-so-wise men” who do everything that the magi didn’t.
Again, great symbolism in this story even if I’m not sure what Kafka intended it to be an allegory for.
I alternated between reading the print from this edition and the free online version on Project Gutenberg. There is some difference in tone but the story comes across in a similar way.
July 21, 2014
This concise compilation (88 pages) consists of five short, surreal stories, the longest and most famous of which is The Metamorphosis. Its protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a beetle. This awkward situation is exacerbated when Gregor’s boss turns up at his house seeking an explanation for his non-attendance at work that day. To compound matters Gregor’s family, who only ever valued him for his earning ability, now see no use for him.
The Judgment is a concise tale regarding a man’s relationship with his son, whilst In the Penal Colony is about an elaborate execution apparatus, whose greatest exponent is a salesman. A Country Doctor follows a doctor’s hapless efforts to attend a sick boy, and A Report to an Academy sees an ape that embraces humanity in his efforts to fit into his new environment.
Though the meanings of these stories can be interpreted in different ways, they universally have bleak, depressing, unsettling, existentialist, nihilist themes that comment on the human condition and the futility of life. Utilising dark humour, long sentences and an abundance of semi-colons, each story is rife with symbolism.
The Judgment is a concise tale regarding a man’s relationship with his son, whilst In the Penal Colony is about an elaborate execution apparatus, whose greatest exponent is a salesman. A Country Doctor follows a doctor’s hapless efforts to attend a sick boy, and A Report to an Academy sees an ape that embraces humanity in his efforts to fit into his new environment.
Though the meanings of these stories can be interpreted in different ways, they universally have bleak, depressing, unsettling, existentialist, nihilist themes that comment on the human condition and the futility of life. Utilising dark humour, long sentences and an abundance of semi-colons, each story is rife with symbolism.
October 31, 2021
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
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.
1. Metamorphosis
This is depressing as hell. First, because fuck Gregor’s family. Second, May all of them rot in hell. Third, this is such a short reading but i am having a hard time indulging it. I am not sure whether this is an allegory of family over dependency or alienation metaphore once people lose their job and started to become ‘useless’ as society deemed it or social commentary on materialistics life or it could be all of them at once. Either way, Gregor is just a poor soul. He was trapped in a destiny that tied his hand - forced to earn money, work hard to get promoted so that he could support his family. When he turned into a bug, he found out that the treatment by his family towards him is cruel. He was being ignored, endured being thrown things at and pushed into isolation. He was crushed and relieved at the same time when he found out that his father has savings , her mother and sister has a bit of jewelleries - deep down he knew that they are going to have a money to cover the expenses but he also cant help but to feel that he did not have to work so hard at the young age and can chase his dream instead if his father did not hide his money. I think the ending will haunt me - being unloved , forgotten
and simply disappeared from his family memories. It made me recalled the scene of Hector’s friend in Coco animation film whom fade away without any trace with no one to remember him.
2. A hunger Artist
I think because i read this story right after metamorphosis, i couldnt get into it right away. We followed the journey of the main character, the hunger artist himself that sell his
performance for a living. How did he do it? by fasting for as long as he could (so far he claimed he could do it more than 40 days). He was kept in the cage and being displayed in the public to show that he did not eat at all. However the story slowly did pick up when the hunger artist has an argument with the impresario (the one who got profit from the hunger artist performance) and eventually was being placed in the obscure location in a circus. The hunger artist felt that no one understand his art and felt that public has forgotten about his performance. He was being mocked by the public and no one really believe that he did stay true to his act and never eaten anything. Eventually, when he was found by the circus supervisor with death approaching him , he confessed that he couldnt really find the food that he like. Afterwards, his cage is being replaced with a Panther. The ending made a comparison of how the Panther is a total opposite of the hunger artist. Is it the critical outlook on public validation, anorexic symbolism , capitalism resistance or just Franz Kafka internalizing his pain as he suffered tuberculosis whereby consumption and swallowing is so painful so he would rather starved himself?
3. Amerika
I am not sure how to summarize this since the publisher of this book decided to only put 30 pages of this novel as part of this short stories compilation. Correct me if i am wrong but i am pretty sure that this is the beginning of the novel . We followed an immigrant named Karl who was forced to go to USA to escape the scandal with an older woman. Karl then met his uncle Senator Jacob while on the mission to confront the captain about the stoker’s dismissal from his job whom Karl made friend with while on the ship. Thats about it, i think. I am not sure whether i wanted to read the full feature novel since i am almost bored to death while reading this chapter.
.
.
To be honest, i love metamorphosis the most out of these 3 stories. Reading these stories in my mothertongue added more feels to it. You felt for gregor. As for the hunger artist, it almost has more comedic feeling to it especially when he said he couldnt find the food that he enjoyed. Malaysians cant relate y’all, our country is blessed with delicious and diverse food. The last story is just meh (at least for me). Overall, A highly recommended reading. I know i took a long time to read Kafka works but i am glad i picked it up this year.
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- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
.
.
1. Metamorphosis
This is depressing as hell. First, because fuck Gregor’s family. Second, May all of them rot in hell. Third, this is such a short reading but i am having a hard time indulging it. I am not sure whether this is an allegory of family over dependency or alienation metaphore once people lose their job and started to become ‘useless’ as society deemed it or social commentary on materialistics life or it could be all of them at once. Either way, Gregor is just a poor soul. He was trapped in a destiny that tied his hand - forced to earn money, work hard to get promoted so that he could support his family. When he turned into a bug, he found out that the treatment by his family towards him is cruel. He was being ignored, endured being thrown things at and pushed into isolation. He was crushed and relieved at the same time when he found out that his father has savings , her mother and sister has a bit of jewelleries - deep down he knew that they are going to have a money to cover the expenses but he also cant help but to feel that he did not have to work so hard at the young age and can chase his dream instead if his father did not hide his money. I think the ending will haunt me - being unloved , forgotten
and simply disappeared from his family memories. It made me recalled the scene of Hector’s friend in Coco animation film whom fade away without any trace with no one to remember him.
2. A hunger Artist
I think because i read this story right after metamorphosis, i couldnt get into it right away. We followed the journey of the main character, the hunger artist himself that sell his
performance for a living. How did he do it? by fasting for as long as he could (so far he claimed he could do it more than 40 days). He was kept in the cage and being displayed in the public to show that he did not eat at all. However the story slowly did pick up when the hunger artist has an argument with the impresario (the one who got profit from the hunger artist performance) and eventually was being placed in the obscure location in a circus. The hunger artist felt that no one understand his art and felt that public has forgotten about his performance. He was being mocked by the public and no one really believe that he did stay true to his act and never eaten anything. Eventually, when he was found by the circus supervisor with death approaching him , he confessed that he couldnt really find the food that he like. Afterwards, his cage is being replaced with a Panther. The ending made a comparison of how the Panther is a total opposite of the hunger artist. Is it the critical outlook on public validation, anorexic symbolism , capitalism resistance or just Franz Kafka internalizing his pain as he suffered tuberculosis whereby consumption and swallowing is so painful so he would rather starved himself?
3. Amerika
I am not sure how to summarize this since the publisher of this book decided to only put 30 pages of this novel as part of this short stories compilation. Correct me if i am wrong but i am pretty sure that this is the beginning of the novel . We followed an immigrant named Karl who was forced to go to USA to escape the scandal with an older woman. Karl then met his uncle Senator Jacob while on the mission to confront the captain about the stoker’s dismissal from his job whom Karl made friend with while on the ship. Thats about it, i think. I am not sure whether i wanted to read the full feature novel since i am almost bored to death while reading this chapter.
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To be honest, i love metamorphosis the most out of these 3 stories. Reading these stories in my mothertongue added more feels to it. You felt for gregor. As for the hunger artist, it almost has more comedic feeling to it especially when he said he couldnt find the food that he enjoyed. Malaysians cant relate y’all, our country is blessed with delicious and diverse food. The last story is just meh (at least for me). Overall, A highly recommended reading. I know i took a long time to read Kafka works but i am glad i picked it up this year.
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May 5, 2016
Menelusuri Franz Kafka dengan cerpen surealnya, The Metamorphosis di mana Gregor Samsa yang bangun dari tidur mendapati dirinya bertukar menjadi seekor serangga adalah suatu pengalaman yang unik. Ironisnya, Gregor Samsa sebelum bertukar menjadi serangga, merupakan ketua keluarga yang menjadi tempat kebergantungan ibu-bapa serta adik perempuannya. Ketiadaan Gregor membuatkan keluarga Samsa bertungkus-lumus mencari jalan untuk meneruskan kemandirian mereka sambil diperhatikan Samsa yang sedang itu merayap; merangkak memerhatikan keluarganya dari biji mata seekor serangga.
Ada juga cerpen "Aksi Tahan Lapar" yang ditulis Kafka sebelum beliau meninggal dunia. Sebuah perjuangan seniman yang punyai prinsip hidup yang kuat.
Pujian harus diberi kepada Thukul Cetak kerana berjaya menterjemah karya-karya agung walaupun kadangkala ada beberapa 'typo' yang menganggu pembacaan (bagi saya). Saya berikan 3.5 bintang untuk naskhah ini. Percayalah, selepas ini sesiapa yang meminati sastera akan mula berjinak-jinak dengan karya penulis-penulis tersohor yang lain.
Ada juga cerpen "Aksi Tahan Lapar" yang ditulis Kafka sebelum beliau meninggal dunia. Sebuah perjuangan seniman yang punyai prinsip hidup yang kuat.
Pujian harus diberi kepada Thukul Cetak kerana berjaya menterjemah karya-karya agung walaupun kadangkala ada beberapa 'typo' yang menganggu pembacaan (bagi saya). Saya berikan 3.5 bintang untuk naskhah ini. Percayalah, selepas ini sesiapa yang meminati sastera akan mula berjinak-jinak dengan karya penulis-penulis tersohor yang lain.
February 12, 2025
2-3 day head start B)
Thank you Carrie Boss for the Christmas gift this was a fun light read. My favorite stories from this were “The Stoker” and “A Hunger Artist”. I also like the short one/two page stories like “The Trees” and “First Sorrow”.
Felt weird reading this just because it felt so personal to the author, like I was reading his diary or something. Strange
Thank you Carrie Boss for the Christmas gift this was a fun light read. My favorite stories from this were “The Stoker” and “A Hunger Artist”. I also like the short one/two page stories like “The Trees” and “First Sorrow”.
Felt weird reading this just because it felt so personal to the author, like I was reading his diary or something. Strange
August 30, 2017
translation yang agak teruk ,
maaf
maaf
Read
April 2, 2023I almost understood it
March 1, 2024
Niet mijn ding
March 24, 2024
If franz kafka has a million fans I’m one of them if he has a hundred fans I’m one of them if he has one fan it’s me if he has zero fans I’m dead 🙏
July 22, 2024
“When Gregor Samsa awoke one day from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed.”
First time reading Kafka but i know for a fact it won’t be the last.
In only 50 pages, Franz Kafka managed to explore the harshness of a capitalist society and the way one is tossed and isolated when he is no longer of use for his close family, whom he provides for everyday before his metamorphosis, but whom refuse to provide for him in return when he faces this challenge. Kafka also presents Gregors own existentialism, which for me was what struck me the most, as his writing and the perspective from which he wrote so vividly reflected the authors own self doubt and shame which the character of Gregor lived entrapped in, when transformed into the monstrous beast that he truly sees himself as. The book itself felt like a microcosm for Kafka’s perspective on, not only society, presented through the harsh treatment and disgust of his family seeing him in this form, but also his perspective on himself: unworthy, self-doubtful and shameful, almost like the animal he wakes up as.
An amazing but emotional read. Packed with ideas and themes but also an extremely accesible classic that is intriguing and easy to get immersed in without being superficial in any way.
4.5⭐️
First time reading Kafka but i know for a fact it won’t be the last.
In only 50 pages, Franz Kafka managed to explore the harshness of a capitalist society and the way one is tossed and isolated when he is no longer of use for his close family, whom he provides for everyday before his metamorphosis, but whom refuse to provide for him in return when he faces this challenge. Kafka also presents Gregors own existentialism, which for me was what struck me the most, as his writing and the perspective from which he wrote so vividly reflected the authors own self doubt and shame which the character of Gregor lived entrapped in, when transformed into the monstrous beast that he truly sees himself as. The book itself felt like a microcosm for Kafka’s perspective on, not only society, presented through the harsh treatment and disgust of his family seeing him in this form, but also his perspective on himself: unworthy, self-doubtful and shameful, almost like the animal he wakes up as.
An amazing but emotional read. Packed with ideas and themes but also an extremely accesible classic that is intriguing and easy to get immersed in without being superficial in any way.
4.5⭐️
September 9, 2023
sad to say this didn't really work for me. in general, i never really connect to most short stories, but here i was genuinely interested in, i believe, only one of them.
weirdly enough, i found Contemplation the most interesting part of this book and even then i had 'to get through' some of the works. i will admit that i would rate some of the stories in Contemplation five stars, but that would only be one or two.
A Hunger-Artist grasped my attention. But even then, it was hard to keep me focused as the story progressed.
Gregor in Metamorphosis seemed to lack personality for me. he was purely work-driven and hungry and deemed disgusting. there was not much more to the story for me next to loneliness and the dread of being.
all in all, it wasn't bad. just not for me i guess.
weirdly enough, i found Contemplation the most interesting part of this book and even then i had 'to get through' some of the works. i will admit that i would rate some of the stories in Contemplation five stars, but that would only be one or two.
A Hunger-Artist grasped my attention. But even then, it was hard to keep me focused as the story progressed.
Gregor in Metamorphosis seemed to lack personality for me. he was purely work-driven and hungry and deemed disgusting. there was not much more to the story for me next to loneliness and the dread of being.
all in all, it wasn't bad. just not for me i guess.
December 6, 2024
I read Die Verwandlung auf Deutsch (The Metamorphosis in German) in high school. The story has remained vivid to me all these years, but I wanted to read it in English, and I finally did.
It's such a strange story and the ending is pretty dark. Still, it's part of being culturally literate. If you haven't read it, you should.
Outside of The Metamorphosis, I've never read any other Kafka stories. This book remedied that and gave me a whole new appreciation for the term "Kafkaesque."
Kafka is an exceptional writer, although I enjoyed his longer short stories more than his ultra-short one- and two-pagers. I particularly liked "The Stoker," "In the Penal Colony," and "A Hunger Artist."
It's such a strange story and the ending is pretty dark. Still, it's part of being culturally literate. If you haven't read it, you should.
Outside of The Metamorphosis, I've never read any other Kafka stories. This book remedied that and gave me a whole new appreciation for the term "Kafkaesque."
Kafka is an exceptional writer, although I enjoyed his longer short stories more than his ultra-short one- and two-pagers. I particularly liked "The Stoker," "In the Penal Colony," and "A Hunger Artist."
October 6, 2024
metamorphosis was rlly good which is no surprise to anyone but the other short stories were interesting. there were some really great ones in the collection like the penal colony and hunger-artist but a lot of them were really long and dull to me. i’m giving this a 4/5 because metamorphosis was great and the book is named after it but the other short stories definitely don’t receive that rating from me. it was interesting seeing kafka write really morbid stories though, i think it’s definitely a strength of his.
March 7, 2023
Enjoyable stories, some confusing though such as The Country Doctor I did not understand. It was not till I rethought through the first story The Judgement that I understood it. The Metamorphosis was a very heart breaking and at the same time unsettling and sad story. Brilliantly written and very much my favourite of the short stories in this collection. I found In The Penal Colony very morbidly interesting and A Report To An Academy was something interesting to muse over.
December 6, 2023
i was pleased with this book i enjoyed a lot of the themes that were throughout most of the stories dealing with growth alienation introspection and death. i really enjoyed metamorphosis and all the weight that story carried. really interesting to see how death in that story was such a freeing feeling
August 2, 2024
Kafka my beloved. God I know this sounds so pretentious but this is the type of book that makes me want to write an essay about. The writing is so good and the stories in this collection are so thought provoking and hold up so well today. I will be reading more by him for sure. One of my recent favs
July 4, 2023
Berisi kumpulan cerpen pilihan karya Kafka dan yang menjadi fokus saya berjudul 'Metamorfosis', 'Di Koloni', dan 'Seorang Dokter Desa'. Lebih lanjut, ulasannya saya tulis di sini:
https://www.agungwicaks.com/2023/05/t...
https://www.agungwicaks.com/2023/05/t...
December 3, 2022
This book is full of stories written with the meandering and unconvincing dialogue of a heavily intoxicated Walt Whitman. Still, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Bachelor’s Misery are entertaining and interesting; these brief stories are worth reading.
April 11, 2025
although I struggle with short story collections, this one wasn't bad because there was direction and flow to all the pieces. My faves were definitely In the Penal Colony, A Country Doctor, and The Passenger. oh and the Metamorphosis, duhh
May 26, 2022
I must be too stupid to understand the genius of Kafka. These stories are trash.
January 2, 2024
I love Kafka’s work. Sometimes it’s hard to follow, but I attribute this more to translation.
November 5, 2023
The Metamorphosis was amazing; other stories so-so.
January 28, 2024
After reading "The Trial" I assumed at least some of Kafka`s works would be better: I was wrong. This book contains most of Kafka`s works, all of which I found either uninteresting or boring.
December 19, 2024
ngl i didn’t like it that much. however since finishing i’ve had 3 beetles fly onto me and cling to me so i’m pretty sure i’m being haunted by the ghost of frank kafka
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