The Metamorphosis

Written by Franz Kafka

Narrated by Jowanna Lewis

The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works. Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin". He initially considers the transformation to be temporary and slowly ponders the consequences of this metamorphosis. Unable to get up and leave the bed, Gregor reflects on his job as a traveling salesman and cloth merchant, which he characterizes as an exhausting and never-ending traffic. He sees his employer as a despot and would quickly quit his job were he not his family's sole breadwinner and working off his bankrupt father's debts... Famous works of the author Franz Kafka: "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Process (The Trial), "Das Urteil" ("The Judgment"), Das Schloss (The Castle), Betrachtung (Contemplation), Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist), Briefe an Felice (Letters to Felice).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing Audio
• Release date: Feb 28, 2020

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was born to Jewish parents in Bohemia in 1883. Kafka’s father was a luxury goods retailer who worked long hours and as a result never became close with his son. Kafka’s relationship with his father greatly influenced his later writing and directly informed his Brief an den Vater (Letter to His Father). Kafka had a thorough education and was fluent in both German and Czech. As a young man, he was hired to work at an insurance company where he was quickly promoted despite his desire to devote his time to writing rather than insurance. Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote a great number of stories, letters, and essays, but burned the majority of his work before his death and requested that his friend Max Brod burn the rest. Brod, however, did not fulfill this request and published many of the works in the years following Kafka’s death of tuberculosis in 1924. Thus, most of Kafka’s works were published posthumously, and he did not live to see them recognized as some of the most important examples of literature of the twentieth century. Kafka’s works are considered among the most significant pieces of existentialist writing, and he is remembered for his poignant depictions of internal conflicts with alienation and oppression. Some of Kafka’s most famous works include The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle.

Reviews for The Metamorphosis

[Ruth Butler · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The narrator sounded like she was in an adult literacy class. Terrible audiobook!

[Meg Iversen · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Can't speak to the quality of the story as I could only make it a few minutes listening to this narrator whose empty delivery would be rivalled by a high school student's rendition.

[balance · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There are some great points but I feel like a lot of the advice contradicts itself. For example, he says to stop watching tv then encourages you to watch an hour of comedy a day...

[HOGS Techs · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I have no idea wht people said it is a great book.
Such a disappointment.