Introduction

'As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.' The opening of The Metamorphosis is one of the most famous sentences in twentieth-century literature. Gregor, a travelling salesman, has worked hard to support his family; changed into an insect, his only worry is missing the train to work. His family pity him at first, then grow to loathe him, and at last treat him as a burden they must be rid of. In the novel The Trial, Josef K., a bank official, is arrested without cause on the morning of his thirtieth birthday; he never learns what crime he is accused of or where the court sits, yet a year later he is executed, 'like a dog'. In the Penal Colony describes a killing machine that inscribes the sentence on the condemned man's body. This volume also includes The Judgement, A Country Doctor, A Hunger Artist, Before the Law and other famous pieces.