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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
For readers drawn to unsettling stories, dark humour, and family tensions, who love seeing an impossible event made disturbingly ordinary.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
Who’s who
- Gregor SamsaA travelling salesman whose transformed body prevents him from working or making his family understand him.
- Grete SamsaGregor's younger sister initially cares for him while taking on new burdens within the household.
- Gregor's fatherA financially dependent father who returns to work and responds to Gregor with fear and force.
- Gregor's motherA mother caught between her love for her son and her distress at his changed appearance.
- Work and usefulnessGregor's loss of earning power exposes how closely his place in the family depends on what he provides.
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- Hardcover
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- 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 monstrous insect-like creature, and his place in the family he supports is at stake.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find that his body has become something monstrous. He lies on his back, struggles with his many legs, and cannot get out of bed. Yet his first worries concern his job. He has missed his train, his employer will be angry, and his family depends on his earnings. The impossible change arrives in a household already ruled by debt, duty, and fear of disappointing others.
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What is Kafka's Metamorphosis about?
Metamorphosis follows Gregor Samsa after he wakes with the body of a monstrous insect-like creature. Unable to work or communicate clearly, he becomes dependent on the family he once supported. The story centres on their changing relationships and the pressure of living together.
What kind of insect does Gregor Samsa become?
Kafka does not identify Gregor as a precise species. His body has a hard back, many legs, and an unfamiliar shape, but calling him simply a cockroach is more definite than the story allows. The emphasis falls on his frightening physical difference, not a scientific classification.
Why does Gregor turn into a bug?
The story gives no cause for Gregor's transformation. Kafka begins with the change already accomplished and follows what happens afterward. This keeps attention on Gregor's anxiety, his loss of independence, and his family's response rather than on a medical or supernatural explanation.
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.
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