The Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

Front cover of a 1916 edition
Author	Franz Kafka
Original title	Die Verwandlung
Language	German
Publisher	Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig
Publication date	1915
Publication place	Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic)
Translation	Metamorphosis at Wikisource

The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung), also translated as The Transformation,^[1] is a novella by Franz Kafka published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect (German: ungeheueres Ungeziefer, lit. "monstrous vermin") and struggles to adjust to this condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, who have offered varied interpretations. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.

With a length of about 70 printed pages over three chapters, it is the longest of the stories Kafka considered complete and published during his lifetime. The text was first published in 1915 in the October issue of the journal Die weißen Blätter under the editorship of René Schickele. The first edition in book form appeared in December 1915 in the series Der jüngste Tag, edited by Kurt Wolff.^[2]