Considered by many critics to be Kafka's most perfect work, one of the most influential works of the 20th Century. This is the story of a young man, who wakes up one morning, having been transformed into a giant beetle. He becomes alienated, even from his family, and must struggle with his feelings of guilt and isolation. Join us for one of the greatest examples of absurdist fiction.
About the Author: Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, the oldest of six children in a middle-class, Jewish family. Franz had a troubled relationship with his overbearing father. The family lived in a cramped apartment with a servant girl until 1913. In 1914, during World War I, his married sisters moved in with their children, as their husbands were away, fighting in the war and Franz moved out, living alone for the first time. He attended an elementary school for boys from 1889 to 1893, then a secondary school for the next eight years. Franz spoke both German and Czech. In 1901, he was admitted to the German Charles-Ferdinand University, in Prague to study chemistry. He switched to law after only two weeks. Although he didn't like law either, it gave him the opportunity to take classes in art, and please his father. He graduated as a Doctor of Law in 1906. After that, he took jobs as an insurance agent, where he developed the first civilian hard hat. At this point, he had begun writing, and disliked anything that encroached on his creative time. In 1911, he became a partner in an asbestos factory, with his sister's husband, began to study Yiddish and became a vegetarian. In 1917, he was turned away from the military, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He would spend most of the rest of his life in sanatoriums. He had numerous relationships, was engaged multiple times, though he never married, and spent much time in brothels. It is rumored that he had a son in 1914, but there is no proof of that. Kafka was a good rider, rower and swimmer, who enjoyed long hikes. He was a Socialist, who was interested in alternative medicine, Montessori education, airplanes, and film, which were mere novelties at the time. In 1924, Kafka's tuberculosis worsened and his throat closed up so much, that he was unable to eat. He began to starve and died in Klosterneuberg, Austria, on June 3, 1924, at the age of 40. He is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery, in Prague. It wasn't until after his death, that his work began to gain popularity and he became famous. His best-known work is "Metamorphosis," which was published in 1915.