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The Metamorphosis

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The Metamorphosis

By: Franz Kafka
Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
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About this listen

 “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.”

With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.

A harrowing - though absurdly comic - meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of 20th-century fiction. As W. H. Auden wrote, “Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.”

FRANZ KAFKA (1883–1924), one of the major fiction writers of the twentieth century, was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague. His unique body of writing, much of which is incomplete and was mainly published posthumously, is considered by some people to be among the most influential in Western literature, inspiring such writers as Albert Camus, Rex Warner, and Samuel Beckett.

©Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Jewish Heritage Metaphysics Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Philosophy Political Science Fiction Funny Short Stories

Critic Reviews

“In The Metamorphosis Kafka reached the height of his mastery: he wrote something which he could never surpass, because there is nothing which The Metamorphosis could be surpassed by - one of the few great, perfect poetic works of this century.” (Elias Canetti, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981)
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Really quite a fascinating story. This reminded me of the South African movie, District 9.
Quite an interesting look into what life was like early 20th century.

Science Fiction

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i loved it. the book started out comedic then got deep and quite dark. im curious to know if the lack of communication between gregor and his family is at all a cometary on the family structure of the day.

a great short read

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an incredible classic everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. I've read it multiple times now, and listened once on audiobook

incredible

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Such a kind heart and always acting in the best of intentions. He was still their son and brother but because of his difference he was cast out for the good of the family. He just needed a kind soul to understand and reach out and not throw apples.

Poor dear Gregor

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My first hearing of this story, I found it quite funny at first and then it became a tragedy as Gregory's family's attitudes change. Narration was great too, quite subdued but well suited to the narration style the book is written in. Moral of the story: bugs have feelings too.

Great story read well

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