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    The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, with eBook
    The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, with eBook
    The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, with eBook
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, with eBook

    Written by Franz Kafka and Guy de Maupassant

    Narrated by Tom Whitworth

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Throughout his amazing career, Franz Kafka created some of the most haunting, timeless, and enduring images of the nightmare world of everyday life. First published in 1915, "The Metamorphosis" is one of Kafka's most famous works. The story begins when traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes from a series of disturbing dreams to discover that he has transformed overnight into a giant insect. Instead of arousing surprise or horror in his family, however, Gregor's condition is merely despised as an imposition, a burden.



    In addition to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," this collection includes eight pieces by one of the fathers of the modern short story, Guy de Maupassant: "The Englishman," "The Piece of String," "The Necklace," "A Crisis," "The Will," "Love," "The Inn," and "Was It a Dream?"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 10, 2009
    ISBN9781400181094
    Author

    Franz Kafka

    Franz Kafka fue un destacado escritor de origen judío nacido el 3 de julio de 1883 en Praga. La relación compleja con su padre y la influencia de su familia se reflejarían en gran medida en su obra. La mayoría de sus obras fueron publicadas póstumamente por su amigo y editor, Max Brod, quien ignoró las últimas voluntades de Kafka de destruir sus escritos. A lo largo de su vida, Kafka luchó con una profunda ansiedad y una intensa introspección que a menudo se reflejaba en sus obras. Sus escritos exploraban temas como la alienación, el aislamiento, la burocracia y el absurdo de la vida moderna. A menudo, sus personajes se enfrentaban a situaciones angustiantes e incomprensibles, y se debatían con la impotencia y la falta de sentido en un mundo aparentemente irracional. A pesar de la aparente oscuridad de su obra, Kafka es considerado uno de los autores más influyentes del siglo XX y su estilo literario ha dejado una profunda huella en la literatura moderna. Sus obras siguen siendo objeto de estudio y admiración en todo el mundo, y su nombre se ha convertido en sinónimo de temas profundos y complejos que exploran la condición humana.

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    Reviews for The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, with eBook

    4/5

    265 ratings15 reviews

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    • 3/5
      You gotta love Kafka's combos of human and animal (and insect) existence... I think, perhaps the most disturbing but rivetting story was "In the Penal Colony", but my favorite whimsy story was "Address to the Academy."

    • 4/5
      Ah, Kafka. The metamorphosis was horrifically intriguing to me. I had to read this one in undergrad as part of a lit class. I was completely, morbidly fascinated with the character and his unfortunate transformation in a monstrous cockroach. I enjoyed it more than most I'm sure.
    • 4/5
      It was a great book, it really makes you think about your family values, and the value of family. What would your family do for you in this situation?
    • 5/5
      Metamorphosis / Winter of our discontent / MetempsychosisMetamorphosis, or Why a Bug?Gregor Samsa awoke one morning as a bug. "What has happened to me?" he thought. And that is the last he thought of how he arrived at his predicament. He acts throughout the story as a human Gregor adapting to life in a bug's body.Is Nietzche engaging in a thought experiment on personal continuity in Metamorphosis? What of Gregor is in this bug? He has a bug body, he must have a bug brain to be able to image through bug eyes, to move bug legs. But he has the consciousness of Gregor that initially externalizes itself outside the body, to talk, after a fashion, to stand and unlock the door, after a fashion. He soon loses the ability to talk and ceases to be Gregor to his family. But he has an immensely strong identity, rooted in providing for his family, and never ceases to be Gregor to himself until his death.But why a bug? Others have made the connection between Samsa and Samsara, the Buddhist wheel of life. According to Samsara, one is reborn an animal when one's human life is centered on survival and self-preservation. Gregor's life is centered on his hated job as traveling salesman, which he keeps only to provide for his family.Beyond that, the bug is absurd and creates a comical scene when, for instance, the head clerk flees down the stairs to escape this monstrosity. Gregor never ascribes this flight and fright to his own appearance, heightening the humor. None of us are bugs, though, and never expect to become one. But each of us could be exposed to a similar alienation, separation, isolation. Consider yourself developing a motor neural disease, confined to a wheelchair, losing gross motor functionality, the ability to speak. Like Gregor, you would have trouble opening doors, even moving through some doorways, communicating with your family. Then you regress, confined to bed, breathing through a tube, externally comatose but fully conscious. The situation in reality is not far removed from the absurd.We likely will not develop such a disease, but we can still experience some form of alienation. Are we also trapped in a job because of circumstance? Metamorphosis holds out hope that a situation can improve even when it appears hopeless. The Samsa family can no longer depend on Gregor's salary, they must work themselves, expand beyond the confines of their home. They find that they are quite capable and soon entertain thoughts of a happy future, a possible husband for Gregor's sister Grete. All are transformed through Gregor's metamorphosis, but a slightly less absurd metamorphosis might also have achieved a happy result. Gregor could simply have emigrated to Amerika, leaving his family to their own devices. Perhaps not morally defensible at some level, but better to feel your humanity than to live and die like a bug.
    • 3/5
      Metamorphosis was the only story of this set that I liked. I found it to be a page-turner.
    • 5/5
      Really a nice change of pace from so many other works where the plot is of high importance. Kafka is more like a fine meal; the point is not to finish the meal, but rather to enjoy the meal as you are consuming it.All of the stories are morbid and strange, enjoyable nonetheless. His grasp on language and his focus on deeper meaning and metaphors(no pun intended)is really quite impressive.
    • 4/5
      I brought this book to see if I would like Kafkas writing before buying The Trail. Didn't really work as I ended up buying both at the same time!I liked this book as a prelude to the trail and I will not be dissapointed as there is that level of wierdness I like in books in his style.The short stories though did not work for me. You just start to get into it and they stop - he needs a whole book to work through the ideas here not 20 or 30 pages tops. The only story that really seemed to come to a natural end was The Metamorphosis.But as I said it was a look see for the book I really wanted to read by him. And in that case it was a success!
    • 4/5
      In this edition, Kafka's classic novella about a man who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant bug is accompanied by several short stories that repeat the themes of alienation, dehumanization, and the difficulty of being an artist in an uncomprehending world. Jason Baker's introduction, which focuses on Kafka's troubled relationship with his father, is helpful, as is Donna Freed's translator's note which explains the difficulties of interpreting Kafka for a modern American audience without losing the flavor of the original German prose. If you are going to read Kafka for the first time, this is a solid edition to start with.
    • 3/5
      "The Metamorphosis" (the short story) was great! I'd give it a 4.3/5. It very weird and wonderful and very outside my usual reading zone. Some of the other stories were also really interesting, like "The Penal Colony".

      I give this specific edition a 3/5. I don't know if it was the stories or the specific translations, but some of the stories just weren't very interesting and even painful to get through. Overall the book was good, it has a nice cover, and the more popular stories were great. But, I don't think you'd necessarily need to read this edition.
    • 1/5
      I've seen suggestions that if you like Haruki Murakami, you'd also probably like Kafka so that combined with seeing someone mention The Metamorphosis, I decided to read this book. It is a decision I regret. I managed to read all but the last three short stories before I gave up.

      My conclusion? While Murakami is whacked out and weird, there is a deliberateness to his work that makes the WTF-ness intentional. Kafka, however, is like listening to someone who is stoned, hallucinating, and paranoid due to a bad drug trip. It's manic, confusing, and I came away thinking that every character was insane or in the midst of a psychotic break.

      No.
    • 3/5
      Overall I would say I like Kafka, but some of these stories were definitely stronger than others... Obviously The Metamorphosis is a masterpiece but I found a lot of the others to be mediocre and didn't "wow" me like The Metamorphosis does. I would say if you're a die hard Kafka fan then this is a fine collection, but otherwise you might as well just read The Metamorphosis on its own. My other favorites of the collection were Before the Law, The Judgement, In the Penal Colony, A Hunger Artist, and A Report to An Academy. In general I thought the longer stories were much better than the really short ones. Also, it might be relevant that I read some of these for class and then finished the rest on my own. Discussing them definitely made a lot of these better.
    • 2/5
      Kafka is weird. There, I said it. And I usually like weird, but I'm still not quite sure what to think of Kafka. In a discussion with a friend about themes, it became a bit easier to read. I didn't have problems with the bug, or the killing device as much as I did with the characters' reactions.

      When I mentioned that the ending in "The Judgement" felt kinda clunky, my friend said, "That's the thing about Kafka. He gets a free pass because he's Kafka. The ending is clunky, but because he's Kafka, people wonder if they're missing something."

      Note to self: Kafka is not god, his work is not perfect. (Weird, but not perfect.)

      In "The Metamorphosis," one of the themes is being worthwhile. This poor man works hard to support his family, but in return, they and the bureaucrats he works for believe him to be nothing more than a "bug." And all anyone can do is be horrified that he can no longer work and treat him even more poorly.

      "In The Penal Colony" was horrifying. Not because of the actual killing device, but is pretty horrific on its own, but for the attitude of The Officer toward crime and punishment. 30 years later, George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four. The extreme belief that anyone showing any humanity towards others is weak, haunts us every day. On a light note, if there is one, I kept hearing Sylvester Stallone in "Judge Dredd" saying, "I AM the law" whenever The Officer spoke about how The Condemned had come to be condemned. It's a pretty damning statement against government (being published the year after WWI ended), dictatorships and those who stand by and do nothing.

      As for "The Country Doctor" and "A Report to the Academy," well, those were more of the same weirdness.

      In sum, I'm not sorry I read this. Not sorry, but not necessarily glad. I can now say I've read Kafka and understand what the meaning of the word "Kafkaesque" is. I don't need to read any more.
    • 3/5
      In Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. The theme of personal transformation is clear and the items which are obvious metaphors (e.g. Samsa being an insect, the apple lodged in his back), will allow students to explore what their intended meaning could have been.

      This book also includes "The Judgement," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," and "A Report to an Academy."
    • 4/5
      The Metamorphosis was required reading for me in school, and I have since re-visited it a few times. Short, powerful, and well worth anyone's time.
    • 5/5
      I love "The Metamorphosis" and have read it several times. I know some people probably think I'm crazy. (My friend, Natalie, said she could never get over the giant bug thing.) Personally, I love the weirdness of the Modernist period.