Metamorphosis
Complete textGregor Samsa wakes from anxious dreams to find his body transformed into a monstrous creature. His first concerns remain his job, the train and his family's finances, but the household must soon confront a change that ordinary duties and explanations cannot absorb.
Continue readingAbout Metamorphosis
The matter-of-fact treatment of an impossible event keeps attention on practical arrangements: doors, furniture, meals and who enters a room. Gregor understands others more readily than they understand him. As care becomes labor, the narrative exposes how usefulness and dependence alter the language of family belonging.
Reading focus
Follow how doors, food and changes to Gregor's room express the family's shifting relationship with him.
This reading edition contains 22,182 words in 3 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Franz Kafka. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his armor-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. His blanket perched high on this belly could hardly stay in place; it seemed about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.
Contents
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Is this the complete Metamorphosis?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 3 sections and 22,182 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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A4 is designed for 210 × 297 mm paper; US Letter for 8.5 × 11 inch paper. Both contain the same complete text, selectable text and section bookmarks.
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