The Metamorphosis

<p>Franz Kafka''s <i>Metamorphosis</i> - arguably the greatest, most famous and most unnerving short work of literary fiction ever written - is a hundred years old in 2015. This centenary edition offers the first complete English translation of Kafka''s text (by A. L. Lloyd from 1937) plus a richly detailed new introduction to the story by novelist Richard T. Kelly, describing its genesis and the life of its creator.<br><br>In <i>The Metamorphosis</i>'' unforgettable opening sentence we meet travelling salesman Gregor Samsa - on a rare overnight stay in the apartment he shares with his family, paid for by his ceaseless labour - who awakes one morning ''from a troubled dream'' to find himself ''changed in his bed to some kind of monstrous vermin''. <br><br> ''There is nothing which <i>The Metamorphosis</i> could be surpassed by - one of the few great, perfect poetic works of this century.'' Elias Canetti<br><br>''My greatest masterpieces of twentieth-century prose are, in this order, Joyce''s <i>Ulysses</i>, Kafka''s [<i>Metamorphosis</i>], Bely''s <i>Petersburg</i> and the first half of Proust''s fairy tale <i>In Search of Lost Time</i>.'' Vladimir Nabokov</p>