Metamorphosis & Some Other Stories. by Franz Kafka (Heathen Edition)

Description: One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his armor-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. His blanket perched high on this belly could hardly stay in place; it seemed about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes."What’s happened to me?" he thought. It was no dream."Why don’t I keep sleeping for a little while longer and forget all this foolishness?" he thought. But this was entirely impractical, for he was used to sleeping on his right side; and in his present state he could not get himself into this position. No matter how hard he threw himself onto his right side, he always rolled onto his back again. Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a prolific German-speaking Bohemian author based in Prague, now widely regarded as one of the principal literary figures of the 20th century. His stories, infused with acute realism and the absurdly fantastic, often feature isolated protagonists facing bizarre, surrealistic predicaments and bewildering, impenetrable socio-bureaucratic powers. In 1915, he published one of his best-known works, Metamorphosis, which tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a giant insect and struggles to adjust to his new condition. Also collected in this edition are nine more Kafka short stories and parables, including In the Penal Colony, A Hunger Artist, and A Report for an Academy. “One of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written . . . there is nothing which The Metamorphosis could be surpassed by.” —Elias Canetti“Kafka articulates the anguish of being human.” —Ernst Pawel“Without sci-fi trappings of any kind, The Metamorphosis forces us to think in terms of analogy, of reflexive interpretation, though it is revealing that none of the characters in the story, including Gregor, ever does think that way.” —David Cronenberg“The world of Kafka’s writing is so bizarre, so alienated, so grotesque that a both humorous and anguished incongruity arises from the juxtaposition of subject and style, absurdity and realism.” —Joachim Neugroschel“The Metamorphosis conveys Kafka’s essential vision: to be a writer is to be condemned to irreparable estrangement.” —Stanley Corngold“You will mark Kafka’s style. Its clarity, its precise and formal intonation in such striking contrast to the nightmare matter of his tale. No poetical metaphors ornament his stark black-and-white story. The limpidity of his style stresses the dark richness of his fantasy. Contrast and unity, style and matter, manner and plot are most perfectly integrated.” —Vladimir Nabokov“Here was a story that defied logic completely and with complete conviction, and it meant something. I wanted to read the story over and over. I have read it countless times since. I’m fascinated by Gregor’s loneliness, by his disintegration. And I know I’m reading one of the finest statements ever made on alienation and cruelty, on how we will kill those whom we will not love and will not try to save.” —Anne Rice

Price: 9.95 USD

Location: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

End Time: 2025-01-20T23:09:03.000Z

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