Best Selling Books by Franz Kafka

Gregor awakens one morning and has been transformed into a monstrous, insect-like creature. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is one of the strangest pieces of 20th century literature and required reading in many high school and college English courses. This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."With it''s startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowingthough absurdly comicmeditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, the Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms. From its iconic opening scene, in which Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into an insect, to its heartbreaking conclusion, Kafka''s novella remains a seminal work of magical realism. As Gregor navigates his new world, he begins to question the very meaning of his existence. One of the world''s most widely read pieces of literature, THE METAMORPHOSIS is a tale of identity that continues to resonate with modern readers.

Allegorical story in which a bank clerk is arrested without cause.

The Trial (German: Der Process) is a novel by Franz Kafka about a character named Josef K., who awakens one morning and, for reasons never revealed, is arrested and prosecuted for an unspecified crime. According to Kafka''s friend Max Brod, the author never finished the novel and wrote in his will that it was to be destroyed. After his death, Brod went against Kafka''s wishes and edited The Trial into what he felt was a coherent novel and had it published in 1925. Franz Kafka was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century. A middle-class Jew based in Prague, his unique body of writing - many incomplete and most published posthumously - has become amongst the most influential in Western literature.

Arranged chronologically, this volume brings together all the major short stories of Kafka which have been published posthumously. In addition to Transformation and The Judgement, it contains the original first chapters of Kafka''s novel Amerika (The Stoker).

Author: Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born the son of a dry-goods shopkeeper in Prague - then in the Austro-Hungarian empire, now the Czech Republic. He studied law, but chose to work for an insurance company to allow him time to pursue other interests. Writing was the principal of these, but Kafka was notoriously reluctant to publish. His student friend, Max Brod, persuaded him in 1913 to allow Meditation, a collection of short stories, to appear. In 1914 he broke off his engagement with Felice Bauer, and began work on The Trial soon after. Diagnosed with TB in 1917, Kafka''s health began to worsen and he died in an Austrian sanatorium in 1924. A year later, Brod had The Trial published, disregarding Kafka''s deathbed instructions to have his three novels destroyed unread.

This ebook compiles Franz Kafka''s greatest writings, including novels, novellas, short stories and parables such as "Amerika", "The Trial", "The Metamorphosis", "The Castle", "In the Penal Colony", "A Hunger Artist" and "The Great Wall of China".This edition has been professionally formatted and contains several tables of contents. The first table of contents (at the very beginning of the ebook) lists the titles of all novels included in this volume. By clicking on one of those titles you will be redirected to the beginning of that work, where you''ll find a new TOC that lists all the chapters and sub-chapters of that specific work.

"The Metamorphosis" (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect.

Harman offers a brilliant new translation of the great writer''s least Kafkaesque novel, based on a German-language text that was produced by a team of international scholars, and that is more faithful to Kafka''s original manuscript than any translation to date.

The essential philosophical writings of one of the twentieth century''s most influential writers are now gathered into a single volume with an introduction and afterword by the celebrated writer and publisher Roberto Calasso. Illness set him free to write a series of philosophical fragments: some narratives, some single images, some parables. These "aphorisms" appeared, sometimes with a few words changed, in other writings-some of them as posthumous fragments published only after Kafka''s death in 1924. While working on K., his major book on Kafka, in the Bodleian Library, Roberto Calasso realized that the Zürau aphorisms, each written on a separate slip of very thin paper, numbered but unbound, represented something unique in Kafka''s opus-a work whose form he had created simultaneously with its content. The notebooks, freshly translated and laid out as Kafka had intended, are a distillation of Kafka at his most powerful and enigmatic. This lost jewel provides the reader with a fresh perspective on the collective work of a genius.

The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a "monstrous...

Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect. Gregor briefly examines his new body, but wonders only momentarily about what has happened to him. His attention quickly switches to observing his room, which he finds very ordinary but a bit small, and a framed magazine clipping of a woman in fur hanging up on the wall. Since he can''t turn on his side, Gregor cannot fall asleep, so instead he begins thinking about his job. He is a traveling salesman, and he hates traveling because he dislikes worrying and getting up early. Gregor''s chief at work is extremely tyrannical, and Gregor wants to quit the job but cannot do so until he has paid off the debts that his parents owe the chief.Gregor wants to get up to go to work, but suddenly realizes that he is already late and must have missed the alarm. He can''t call in sick because he has not missed a day of work in five years and it would look suspicious. Gregor''s mother calls to him, and he answers her, noticing that his voice is changing. Gregor''s father and Grete, his sister, realize that he is still at home and try to enter his room, but he has locked his doors and they can''t get in. Gregor attempts to get out of bed, but finds this very difficult. He realizes that he is now very late, and lies back hoping that some clear thinking will resolve the situation. Suddenly the doorbell rings and the chief clerk comes into the apartment. Angry that his firm sends the chief clerk himself if he is only a little late, Gregor finally swings himself out of bed.As the family entreats Gregor to open the door, he refuses. Mrs. Samsa insists that Gregor must be ill or he would not be acting like this. The chief clerk loses his temper and tells Gregor that he is shocked by his attitude, insisting that his position in the company is not unassailable because his work has been poor lately. Gregor is angered by this speech, and insists that he is simply feeling slightly indisposed but will soon return to work. He retorts that his business has not been bad lately. Because of the changes in Gregor''s voice, no one outside understands a word he says. Fearing he is ill, his parents send Grete and the servant girl to get the doctor and the locksmith. With great difficulty Gregor manages to open the door by himself.Seeing Gregor, the chief clerk backs away while his father begins to weep. Gregor begs the chief clerk to explain the situation at the office and to stand up for him. He says that he will gladly come back to work and asks the chief clerk not to leave without agreeing with him. Gregor tries to stop the clerk so as to keep him from leaving with such a negative view of things, but then his mother, backing away, knocks over a coffee pot, causing a commotion and giving the chief clerk an opportunity to get away. Gregor''s father picks up a walking stick to drive Gregor back into his room. Gregor gets stuck in the doorway, and his father shoves him through, injuring him in the process, and slams the door behind him.

"I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself." - Franz Kafka

The Trial (German: The Trial) (English: The Trial) Der Process) is a novel by Franz Kafka about the years 1914 as well as 1915 and published on 26 April 1925 following his death. It''s one of his most well known works and also tells the story of Josef K., a man who was held and tried by an unknown, unavailable authority without the specifics of his crime being exposed to either him or the audience. Greatly influenced by Dostoevsky''s Crime as well as Punishment and also the Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative.Unlike Kafka''s 2 other novels, The Trial was never finished, though it does have a chapter that seems to take the story to an intentionally abrupt end. Max Brod, Kafka''s good friend as well as literary executor following his death in 1924, rewrote the manuscript for Verlag Die Schmiede following Kafka died. The initial manuscript is kept at the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The very first German translation, by Willa and Edwin Muir, was released in 1937.In 1999, the book was included in Le Monde''s 100 Books of the Century as well as No. 2 of the most useful German Novels of the Last 100 years. Here is the complete text of the novel with the followings annotations: *Biographical Information: Kafka''s parents most likely spoke a German affected by Yiddish which was sometimes pejoratively called Mauscheldeutsch, but, as German was regarded as the automobile of social mobility, they likely encouraged the children of theirs to speak Standard German.Hermann and Julie had 6 kids, of who Franz was the eldest. Franz''s 2 brothers, Heinrich and Georg, died in infancy before Franz was seven; his 3 sisters were Gabriele ("Ellie") (1889 1944), Valerie ("Valli") (1890 1942 Ottilie and) ("Ottla") (1892 1943). All 3 had been murdered in the Holocaust of World War II. Valli was deported on the Lódź Ghetto in occupied Poland in 1942, but that''s the final information of her; it''s assumed she didn''t endure the battle. Ottilie was Kafka''s favourite sister. Hermann is discussed by the biographer Stanley Corngold as a "huge, selfish, overbearing businessman"and also by Franz Kafka as "a true Kafka in power, well being, appetite, loudness of speech, eloquence, self satisfaction, worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, understanding of man nature".