2 h 8 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 8 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 52 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 52 pagesAbout this book
What happens when the family you support can no longer bear to look at you?
Gregor Samsa wakes to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect-like creature. He cannot get out of bed, let alone return to his exhausting work as a travelling salesman. Yet his parents and younger sister, Grete, depend on his wages. His body has changed; his sense of duty has not.
As Gregor struggles to make himself understood, his bedroom becomes the centre of a strained household. Grete brings food, his mother wavers between affection and alarm, and his father faces new demands. Franz Kafka tells this impossible story with unsettling calm, making questions about work, shame, and belonging feel painfully close.
What you’ll discover
- An impossible ordinary morning Enter a nightmare where many legs and a missed working day share the same troubling space.
- A provider made dependent Follow Gregor as losing his wages exposes the fragile place he holds within his family.
- Care under strain Watch Grete try to feed her brother while unfamiliar responsibilities begin to weigh on her.
- Horror told with calm Feel how Kafka’s matter-of-fact prose makes a monstrous change seem disturbingly ordinary.
- Questions without easy comfort Consider what remains of love and identity when a person can no longer be useful.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who like strange, vivid short fiction, close family drama and stories that stay in the mind. It also rewards anyone curious about work, duty and how families treat those who depend on them.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A salesman wakes as an insect
- Gregor opens the door
- Grete becomes his careful keeper
- The family changes around him
- Work, worth and who counts as family
- A strange event told in plain words
Who’s who
- Gregor SamsaA traveling salesman who supports his family and wakes as a giant insect, still anxious about work and desperate to be understood.
- GreteGregor's seventeen-year-old sister, who plays the violin and takes charge of caring for him, though she struggles to bear the sight of him.
- Mr. SamsaGregor's father, a once-failed businessman who has rested for years and now returns to work, guarding his family's pride and fearing disorder.
- Mrs. SamsaGregor's mother, who has asthma and a gentle voice, longs to see her son but faints when she does.
- The chief clerkA senior officer of the firm who arrives to demand why Gregor has missed his train and doubts his loyalty.
- The charwomanA tough old widow who takes over the heavy housework and looks in on Gregor without fear, calling him a dung beetle.
- The three lodgersBearded tenants who rent a room in the apartment, insist on strict order and expect comfort for their money.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 2 h 8 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 52 pages: 5,95 USD when you start free, 12,95 USD on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 52 pages: 12,95 USD when you start free, 19,95 USD on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Metamorphosis in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka · 1915
Gregor Samsa wakes as a giant insect and still frets about catching the early train to work.
Challenging2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It begins with one of the strangest openings in fiction: a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa wakes up in his bed and finds that he has become a giant insect.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A salesman wakes as an insect
Gregor Samsa wakes on a rainy morning in his small room and finds that he has turned into an enormous insect. He lies on a hard, armor-like back and sees a domed brown belly and many thin legs waving before his eyes. He knows at once that it is not a dream. The room around him is quite ordinary, with cloth samples spread on the table and a magazine picture of a woman in furs hanging in a gilded frame that he cut out himself.
What troubles Gregor most is not his body but his job. He is a traveling salesman, and he thinks of his work as a tiring life of early trains, poor meals and people who come and go without ever becoming friends. He stays in the post only because his parents owe money to his employer. He reckons that five or six more years will pay off the debt, and then he plans to quit and tell his boss exactly what he thinks.
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What is Metamorphosis by Kafka about?
It follows Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who wakes up as a giant insect, and shows how his family, his employer and his own mind respond over the following weeks inside the family apartment.
Why does Gregor Samsa turn into an insect?
The story never gives a reason. Kafka states the change in the first sentence and then concentrates on its effects, which leaves readers to find meaning in Gregor's work, family duty and isolation.
Who is Grete in Metamorphosis?
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, seventeen years old, who plays the violin. She is the first to bring him food and look after his room, and her feelings toward him change as the story goes on.
The author
Franz Kafka
1883–1924 · German-language novelist from Prague
Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and wrote in German. He worked in insurance while writing stories and novels. The Metamorphosis was published in 1915. The Trial appeared after his death, in 1925. He lived mainly in Prague and died in Kierling, Austria, in 1924.
More by Franz Kafka
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