Metamorphosis

How significant can a picture of a woman in fur be when you try to hold it dear as the only resemblance left to human life? When Gregor Samsa wakes up in his bed, he is aghast to find himself transformed into a giant bug. He is now to spend the rest of his life in that state. Life to him becomes a struggle to align his lingering humanity and his transformed physicality. Thus begins Metamorphosis. Delving into absurdity of life, the disconnect between the mind and body and limits of sympathy, the book has been cited as one of the seminal works of twentieth-century fiction.

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a German-language writer of visionary fiction whose works—especially the novel Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and the story Die Verwandlung (1915; The Metamorphosis)—express the anxieties and alienation felt by many in twentieth-century Europe and North America.