The Metamorphosis: A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky

Nice edition of a true classic. I haven't yet read this translation in full but glancing over select passages, it seems rather crisp and readable in style without taking significant liberties. Good quality production, cool cover, intro by David Cronenberg. Recommended.

Such a great translation, made me super emotional. This is a great read, especially in today’s climate of disposable labor.

I ended up rating The Metamorphosis 4 stars. When I first finished, I thought it was closer to a 3 or 3.5. I wasn’t emotionally devastated the way I expected to be. Instead, I found myself thinking about it for hours afterward, turning over scenes and symbols in my mind. For a novella that’s barely over 70 pages, that’s an accomplishment in itself. On the surface, it’s a bizarre story about a man who wakes up transformed into a monstrous insect. But I don’t think it’s really about the insect at all. To me, it was the story of a caregiver who slowly realizes that, to the people he has sacrificed everything for, he has become nothing more than a bug. Gregor spends his life supporting his parents and sister. His identity is completely wrapped up in what he provides. When he loses the ability to work, his family doesn’t simply lose their income. They gradually stop seeing him as a person. One of the most interesting parts of the novella was watching the symbolism evolve. The door to Gregor’s room begins as protection, preserving his privacy and dignity. Over time, it becomes a source of shame. Eventually it is left open during dinner, turning Gregor into a spectator, silently watching his family continue their lives without him. It reminded me of keeping insects in a glass enclosure, except Kafka reverses the roles. Gregor watches the humans, and in many ways they become the creatures under observation. Gregor, despite his grotesque appearance, remains compassionate until the very end, while his family’s behavior becomes increasingly mechanical and utilitarian. Another detail that lingered with me was the apartment itself. Kafka specifically reminds us that Gregor chose it. It felt like one final reminder that everything the family enjoyed had been built through Gregor’s sacrifice, yet after his death they eagerly discuss moving somewhere smaller, almost as though they are shedding every trace of him. That struck me as far crueler than Gregor’s death itself. The ending didn’t break my heart because Gregor died. It broke my heart because of how quickly everyone moved on. Within a day, his family is talking about promotions, a brighter future, and finding Grete a husband. Gregor devoted his existence to them, yet his absence is treated more like relief than loss. One realization I kept coming back to was that Gregor’s endless caregiving may have unintentionally enabled his family’s dependence. He believed they couldn’t survive without him, but once he was gone, they adapted remarkably quickly. In trying to carry everyone else’s burdens, he prevented them from discovering they were capable of carrying their own. Kafka’s prose is intentionally repetitive. The days blur together, Gregor weakens, and the monotony becomes part of the horror. At times I wished for more emotional intimacy with Gregor as a character, because we know surprisingly little about him outside of his obligations. Yet perhaps that’s the point. Even before becoming an insect, Gregor had already been reduced to his usefulness. I didn’t finish this book feeling devastated. I finished it feeling unsettled. It left me asking uncomfortable questions about caregiving, conditional love, usefulness, and what remains of a person’s identity when they can no longer provide for the people around them.

An essential book to read.

Great book. Thank you

You haven’t read The Metamorphosis? You haven’t?!? Run and do it and pray you won’t wake up as a bug in your own bed the next morning, to spend your life… Erm, yes, this is where I need to stop. Number one, please don’t read the introduction. This particular translation is fantastic, but! I wish I’d been warned about the spoilers upfront. Read the novella first, THEN read the introduction. It has ruined the ending for me, well, ruined is too strong of a word, let’s say, I really wish I didn’t know. Although this brilliant macabre story is over 100 years old, I didn’t know how it ends, and I was disappointed to find out before reading it. This was my first Kafka (I know, you can stop pointing your fingers now) and I got enthralled to the point of forgetting myself until I got to the end. You might have heard it’s a story of a salesman waking up one morning as a monstrous vermin. But it’s much more than that. It has dark humor to it. It’s a story of turning mute, being unable to communicate with the world, your own family first and foremost, it’s a grotesque depiction of what it’s like to be alien. I don’t mean some green alien creature with antennae sticking out of its head, I mean alien as in not fitting in. We’ve all gone through this toil, either in our teens or later, when we decided to change our lives or careers and have been met with mute stares of those who simply didn’t get what we were doing, why, labeled us as alien creatures and cut off contact. It’s why I think The Metamorphosis is so poignant today as it was when it was first published. Now, go read it, hope you still have two legs and not eight tomorrow when you find yourself in bed, awake, staring at the ceiling.

This is not a review for the book or translation. It's for the paperback book quality. It was new. But the printing quality is not great. Look at the front and back. It's either printed wrong size or the cutting was off. The publisher should have better quality control for their product. It was like receiving an ARC.

Kafka would be glad to see no direct insect imagery on the cover. I’m not a fan of the translation but, the words are a pretty decent size. There’s also an introduction that takes up about half the printed pages so that’s another thing to keep in mind when purchasing.

Perfect stand alone edition of the story with a useful introduction.

I’d been putting this off because of the preconceptions I’d picked up about Kafkas surreal style and all I can say is there is very little that is not accessible about this short and eye opening read. Eye opening because you can really sense there is something of the actual authors true feelings delivered in this. A deep sadness but one that isn’t whiny and superficially brooding as is the typical fashion of our day, but melancholic yet accepting.... perhaps more typical of Kafkas day then. I shopped around for a translation that had generally good reviews across the board and perhaps that was the key to my enjoyment as it reads very nicely too. My hope whenever I start a new book is that the last page isn’t the last time I think about the characters and story and this massively ticked that box, that my time wasn’t wasted as time seems more and more fleeting as the days go by. So anything I put my time into I want to know was time well spent... ... It’s not that Kafka expertly crafted a detailed world and filled it with beautifully complex people... more that I read a story of change that allowed me to question my circumstances, my future, and my relationships to the people around me.... and that is priceless.

Such a cool read. I finished watching Ari Asters movie “Baeu is afraid” and heard it was inspired by this book. It was very interesting to say the least

Selbst wenn ich die Geschichte nicht schon ein Dutzend mal gelesen hätte, ich hätte dieses Buch schon alleine wegen dem Cover und dem neuen Vorwort gekauft. Hervorragende Geschichte, gestalterisch und typografisch sehr schön umgesetzt und sehr gut übersetzt. Wenn es nur einen (winzigen) Kritikpunkt gibt, dann die Qualität des Papiers im Innenteil. Die hält das Niveau des Umschlags nicht ganz aufrecht, ist aber immer noch sehr gut.

Mi hija me lo pidió está en inglés, lo leyó muy rápido y le gusto