The Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, and Other Stories (Paperback)

by Franz Kafka (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator) "THERE WAS a time when I went every day into a church, since a girl I was in love with knelt there in prayer for..." (more)
Key Phrases: felt gag, three liras, hunger artist (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Václav Havel In Kafka, I have found a portion of my own experience of the world, of myself, and of my way of being in the world. -- Review

Review
Harold Bloomauthor of Shakespeare: The Invention of the HumanJoachim Neugroschel's version is an advance over previous translations of Kafka into English.

Joseph CoatesChicago TribuneIn Neugroschel's version we see more of Kafka's meaning, his unexpected comedy....In this version, we have for the first time the sense of understanding Kafka's complexity and where it might lead us.

Ronald Haymanauthor of K: A Biography of Kafka and ProustJoachim Neugroschel has provided something that was badly needed -- an accurate translation of Kafka's stories into English. Kafka is difficult to translate, and the version we all know -- by Edwin and Willa Muir -- is full of mistakes. Neugroschel's translation is much closer to Kafka's German.

Václav HavelIn Kafka, I have found a portion of my own experience of the world, of myself, and of my way of being in the world.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684800705
• ISBN-13: 978-0684800707
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #450,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In The Penal Colony, May 3, 2004

By	"jrkershner" (Muncie, In) - See all my reviews

Kafka's dark sense of reality shines through in this piece in his in The GReat Short Works of Franz Kafka. As he often does, Kafka uses his alter reality as a metaphor for our reality. In The Penal Colony is a peice about a machine that punishes criminals by slowly enraving a script into the criminals body spelling out their crime and eventually killing them. He details the workings of the machine; from it's bed of cotton and bitting felt, to it's harrow, where the sharp needles lie in wait. Holding true to his metaphorical style, the machine represents a broader machine in our reality; the justice system. He subtley equates the the workings of the machine with the processes and workings of our own systems, obviously denouncing their mechanical ways. This is a great peice to introduce Kafka and his styles and should lead you to pick up others of his works.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to Kafka, February 25, 2001

By	D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories (Schocken Kafka Library) (Paperback)

This is a splendid initiation into the warped imagination of Franz Kafka. In one swoop the reader gets the infamous Freudian "Metamorphosis" as well as some of Kafka's other macabre short stories.

Perhaps the best of these is "In the Penal Colony." It reads like Michel Foucault's "Discipline And Punish" on acid. It is almost like a satire on what Hegel liked to refer to as the "slaughterhouse of history." The story is at once terrifying and grotesquely comical.

The rest of the stories are typical Kafka; perverse but fascinating. For those who have a morose fascination with ghastly world of this author's literary fantasy, this is an exceptional book to begin with.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uniquely Disturbing, September 29, 2000

By	"amaranyth" (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories (Schocken Kafka Library) (Paperback)

Admittedly, Kafka is not an easy read. The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony are the two parts of this book I am most familiar with, and I definitely recommend them to interested readers. Both are strangely imaginative stories, sometimes lacking in action, but more than making up for it in depth. I think Kafka's stories are riveting due to the psychological tension he creates, especially in 'Penal Colony'. That particular short story is also an operetta, which I recently saw. To see it acted out is a uniquely disturbing experience. Read on, but brace yourselves.