This is a non-objective-emotionally-laden-I'm-so-damn-glad-to-be-done-with-this-book review...I've owned this book for long enough to have forgotten how I acquired it. I chose to read it now because "The Penal Colony" was mentioned in Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, which I read a month or so ago. I skipped right to "The Penal Colony" and enjoyed it. Then I put the book down. It sat on my bedside table giving me the kind of looks young orphans give to potential adoptive parents. I tried to ignore...

The Penal Colony was by far my favorite. Other notable short stories were of course The Metamorphosis, the Bachelor, The Hunger Artist, and The Judgement. As often with Kafka, some off the stories either 'go over my head,' or simply don't resonate with me, but that doesn't change the fact that there is no other author out there like Kafka. (Maybe Knute Hamsun or Sigizmund Khrizhanovsky comes close).

a VERY mixed bag

Kafka allegedly worked at an insurance company, but I'm convinced it was a front for a publishing house, because it's beyond me how he managed to get most of these works published in his lifetime. The stories that aren't just sketches of a scene or descriptions of people (one story consists entirely of a narrator describing each of his 11 sons in excruciating detail) seem overly dramatic. I understand he's trying to drive home metaphors or commentary, but I think there are ways of doing that wit...

Superior! For me the best aspect of Kafka is the attitude of the stories. It's not "imagine one day that this happened..." it's "one day..this happened..." It makes the stories so much more bizarre! My favourite was The Metamorphosis. I think the story of Gregor Samsa is definitive for Kafka's style of writing. In the Penal Colony was horrific and very good as well. The only other story that stood out in the book was The Hunger Artist. The rest were really just filler, and not engaging.

Beautiful and strange stories that read as modern and innovative now as they did a hundred years ago when they were written. It goes without saying that contemporary literature wouldn't be the same without Kafka. Joachim Neugroschel does an excellent job with these stories, making them sound more natural than most other English translators.

I have often been told I should read Franz Kafka. I've been told by people I know, or by introductions in other books, or from lists of classics I should read. So one day not long ago as I was browsing in a bookstore I came across "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories" and I bought it. Now I've read my first Kafka. The amount of stars it is getting is still up in the air for now. The first story in the book is "The Metamorphosis", of course it would be first, and as I start reading the first line...

Metamorphosis is doubtless Franz Kafka’s most famous and influential short story, and it is the pearl of this volume. Kafka published a few stories during his lifetime but never came to his own commercially. In the end, perhaps out of disillusion, he asked his friend, Max Brod, to burn the writings that had remained unpublished — luckily for us, Brod disobeyed the author’s order. The present book includes the tales Kafka published during his lifetime (he died in 1924). The ones published posthum...

The brilliant Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges wrote that “every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past as it will modify the future” and that this was true of Kafka, despite his work being widely viewed as unique. Without doubt, the themes Kafka explores here — powerlessness, alienation, loneliness — are as old as literature itself and Kafka, in his exploration of those notions has modified our perception of the works of his precursors. For example,

His works are often ambiguous and vague in defining purpose or moral meaning. Instead, there's a cacophony of events, images, and multifaceted characters that you learn to love and hate, relate to, and at the same time feel compelled to distance yourself from. He presents emotions, situations, and characters, which no matter how foreign in behavior, or state of mind, retain an unmistakable and comical resemblance to human nature. He takes what we all already “know” somewhere in our subconscious

I simply do not have the time for a sad man writing about nothing of interest.

"Before the Law stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country and prays for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot grant admittance at the moment. The man thinks it over and then asks if he will be allowed in later. 'It is possible,' says the doorkeeper, 'but not at the moment.' Since the gate stands open, as usual, and the doorkeeper steps to one side, the man stoops to peer through the gateway into the interior. Observing that, the doorkeeper...

Captivating, strange and ultimately rather chilling.I'm actually reviewing another version of this book - so I'm not sure if it contains the same short stories; and for that reason, I'll only talk about the ones I know are in both - The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony. I first read The Metamorphosis when I was a teenager, then again in my twenties. Both times, the story really stayed with me - though I have to say, I don't think I really truly grasped its full horror until I read it a thir...

Aside from the introduction by Anne Rice, which should be skipped, this is a good collection and great introduction to Kafka. "The Metamorphosis," "In the Penal Colony," and "The Judgment" are worth it alone. But Schocken includes three collections of short stories in this volume, all of them filled with amazing moments. "A Hunger Artist" might be my favorite, but there are many others that left me a little in awe of Kafka's abilities.Reading Franz isn't particularly difficult, at least not most...

4.5/5 Finally I read "The Metamorphosis, The Judgment, The Penal Colony". They're the reason why I bought this collection. Before I got this I did my best to avoid anything written about Kafka and his works; cause I wanted to enjoy reading them and have my mind blown away, which have been achieved Wonderfully. I just enjoyed reading those 3 stories like I never thought I would. They just drill themselves in your mind and under your skin in a very peculiar way. which is AMAZING !The best thing ab...

Interesting set of psychological thrillers. Anne Rice's foreword proclaims them "the first horror stories", but if that's true, they're certainly not the blood & gore type of horror stories. The premises are dark twists on reality, but the (re)actions of the characters are real enough to be the scary part. From reading some of the other stories in the book (namely "In the Penal Colony", "Conversations with the Supplicant", "The Hunger Artist", and some pieces from the collection of "Meditations"...

"The law... should be accessible to everyone and at all times."This very short story has been published on its own, as a chapter in his novel The Trial (see my review HERE) and in the collection The Country Doctor (see my review HERE).It's a short, allegorical tale on one of Kafka's key themes: judgement. (He studied law at university, and went on to work in insurance, investigating personal injury claims.)A man comes seeking justice (the reason is not stated - this is Kafka, after all!), and th...

I actually have a copy of Kafka’s complete stories, but I decided to just read his published stories for now, which align with the stories in this collection and have the same translator, so I’m using this as a placeholder.I think I’ve just grown unaccustomed to such prosaic, matter-of-fact writing. Kafka’s writing is almost devoid of metaphor, which is understandable, I suppose, because to compare anything in its world to the world would be offering the reader an escape, in the way that compari...

As usual the story was KAFKAESQUE. Better read it, its a very short one, though thought provoking.

Let's talk about Franz Kafka! So for this review, I'm going to try and provide some of my thoughts on my favorite story from each collection. From Meditation, my favorite story would have to be Unhappiness. The comedy of the interaction between the apparition is excellent, but it doesn't betray the ultimate sorrow of what the story is trying to say. The Judgement is Kafka in near top form, it's a superb story and the pure dread of the relationship between father and son makes it what it is. The