Metamorphosis

One day, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes from a disturbing dream to discover that he has been transformed into a gigantic insect. “O God, what a demanding job I’ve chosen!” he thinks, before slowly realizing that the transformation is real and irreversible.

From its startling and bizarre opening — “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect...” — Metamorphosis plunges readers into a world where the absurd becomes ordinary, and the familiar becomes alien.

As Gregor struggles to adjust, his family is overcome by shame, discomfort, and rejection, and he becomes an outsider in his own home. Kafka's story serves as a harrowing yet darkly comic meditation on alienation, guilt, and the fragility of human connection.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential works of twentieth-century fiction, Metamorphosis captures the existential despair of modern life. As W.H. Auden wrote, “Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man.”