"Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by Stanley Corngold Featuring essays by Philip Roth, W.H Auden, and Walter Benjamin "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. 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 twentieth-century fiction. This Modern Library edition collects Stanley Corngold's acclaimed English translation--long hailed as the gold standard by scholars and general readers alike--along with six critical essays by writers including Philip …
"Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by Stanley Corngold Featuring essays by Philip Roth, W.H Auden, and Walter Benjamin "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. 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 twentieth-century fiction. This Modern Library edition collects Stanley Corngold's acclaimed English translation--long hailed as the gold standard by scholars and general readers alike--along with six critical essays by writers including Philip Roth, W.H. Auden, and Walter Benjamin, background and contextual material, and a new Introduction from Corngold himself"--
""When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. 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 twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.""--
This book made me laugh out loud so many times. Its genius lies in the way Gregor’s thoughts mirror our own cognitive dissonance living in a society that has turned us all into wage slaves.
Oh, our government is deploying the national guard to arrest my neighbors? Jeez, I’ve got to get to work. Oh, I’ve been turned into a giant bug? I think I can still catch the next train to get to work!
