The Metamorphosis
Die Verwandlung
EditionTranslated from the original German
One morning a traveling salesman wakes to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin, and his family has to live with it.
Also in the library: the complete Korean translation.
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About the book
Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who supports his parents and his younger sister, wakes one morning transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. Kafka never says what Gregor has become. In three parts, the story follows what the change does to Gregor, to his job, and above all to his family, who must decide what he still is to them.
This complete English translation is made directly from the German text of the Kurt Wolff edition. Each of Kafka’s ninety-seven paragraphs appears as one paragraph, his long, self-correcting sentences are kept long, and Ungeziefer is rendered as “vermin,” leaving open what the original leaves open.
Highlights
- One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from restless dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.
- “What has happened to me?” he thought. It was no dream.
- And it seemed to them a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when, at the end of their ride, their daughter got up first and stretched her young body.
Contents
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Colophon
Translated from the original German. Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.Full colophon
The Metamorphosis
Original title · Die Verwandlung
Author · Franz Kafka (1883–1924)
Translator · Ether Library
First publication · October 1915, in the monthly Die weißen Blätter; in book form late in 1915 by Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig, in the series Der jüngste Tag (vols. 22/23).
Source text · A public-domain digital transcription of the Kurt Wolff edition, printing dated 1917. Translated directly from the German.
Extent · Complete and unabridged · three parts · 97 paragraphs, as in the original · no translator’s notes
Copyright · The author died in 1924; the original work is in the public domain.
This translation · Translated from the German by Ether Library. The English text is © Ether Library and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0): you may copy and share it for noncommercial purposes, with attribution.
Edition · English edition 1.0 · October 2026
Typography · Set in Lora (SIL Open Font License 1.1). Cover painting and design by Ether Library.
Original in the public domain · English translation CC BY-NC 4.0
Ether Library · No. 0019
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