Cliffs Notes on Kafka's The Metamorphosis & Other Stories [Paperback]

M.A. Herberth Czermak (Author), M.A. Gary Cary (Editor), Ph.D. James L. Roberts (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1973 | ISBN-10: 0822007002 | ISBN-13: 978-0822007005 | Edition: 1

The stories of this turn-of-the-century writer concern the disillusionment of modern man. To Kafka and to the people in his stories, life is often absurd and meaningless, with only a faint ray of fleeting hope.

This concise supplement to Kafka's The Metamorphosis and other stories helps students understand the overall structure of the works, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.

This volume also covers The Judgment, A Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor, In the Penal Colony, The Hunter Gracchus, The Burrow, Investigations of a Dog, A Report to an Academy, The Great Wall of China, and Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Cliffs Notes; 1 edition (April 15, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822007002
• ISBN-13: 978-0822007005
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #907,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Eastern European

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate analysis from Czermak on the writings of Kafka, June 9, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cliffs Notes on Kafka's The Metamorphosis & Other Stories (Paperback)

Herberth Czermak has put together a somewhat different Cliffs Notes volume for looking at "The Metamorphosis" and other stories by Franz Kafka. Certainly it would a bit much to devote an entire little yellow book with the black stripes to the story of Gregor Samsa, although clearly it is Kafka's most important work. But the biggest difference is that this is a Cliffs Notes where the emphasis is on commentary to the exclusion of summaries of the works being discussed. You will not find a synopsis of these stories and you certainly will not understand the first-rate commentary and analysis if you have not read the stories in the first place. What you will find is detailed analysis that will help you understanding the writings of Franz Kafka. You have been warned.

Czermak's notes on the Life and Background do more than get into Kafka's biography, they set up the author's focus on "angst" and put "The Metamorphosis" in the context of his body of writing. In his Commentaries on Kafka's stories Czermak continues to cross-reference other works, which certainly suggests all sorts of comparison/contrast possibilities for class discussion. The Kafka stories examined here are: "The Judgment," "A Hunger Artist," "A Country Doctor," "In the Penal Colony," "The Hunter Gracchus," "The Burrow," "Investigations of a Dog," "A Report to an Academy," "The Great Wall of China," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk." After the Commentaries on the Stories, Czermak provides four short essays that cut these works, "Understanding Kafka," "Kafka's Jewish Influence," "Kafka--A 'Religious' Writer?" and "Kafka and Existentialism." This last essay is the most relevant because most students find existentialism to be an interesting thing to look at and "The Metamorphosis" is as good a place as any to begin exploring that major literary movement.