Metamorphosis

This hardback gift edition presents Franz Kafka's celebrated novella, Metamorphosis, featuring a silver embossed cover design, patterned endpapers and gilded page edges.

A masterful mix of horror and absurdity, Metamorphosis tells the story of travelling salesman Samsa, who wakes up one day to find out he has turned into a giant insect. Samsa has been a model of virtue for years, single-handedly supporting his parents and young sister. Suddenly he finds himself outcast in his own home, facing a world in which he no longer has a place. Simultaneously harrowing and humorous, Metamorphosis is a strange, subtle and moving novella which has become a classic of world literature.

This elegant pocket-sized gift edition includes the classic, unabridged text, introduced and translated by William Aaltonen. It is presented with a silver embossed cover design, ivory pages, beautifully designed endpapers and gilded page edges. Part of the Arcturus Ornate Classics series, this edition makes wonderful gift for any lovers of classic fiction.

ABOUT THE SERIES: Arcturus Ornate Classics are beautifully bound editions of iconic literary works across history. These compact, foil-embossed hardbacks are printed using deluxe ivory paper and make the perfect gift.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born in Prague into a German-speaking Czech Jewish family. He received little recognition for his writing during his lifetime but is now celebrated as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. His rise to fame happened after his death when, against explicit instructions written in his will, his close friend and literary executor Max Brod decided to publish Kafka's unfinished work. It is through these posthumous publications that his work received the recognition it deserved. His name has now become a byword for alienation and guilt - and his work is both harrowing and humorous, featuring individuals caught up in an impersonal and bureaucratic world over which they have increasingly little power. He is now one of the most celebrated classic novelist in the German language.

Will Aaltonen Pearson worked for the Royal Navy for seven years before winning a scholarship ran to Ruskin Workers' College, Oxford. From there, he went on to study French and German at Oriel College. He has been a writer for the best part of thirty years, working in television, newspapers, magazines and books. As 'Will Pearson', he has ghost-written several top ten best-sellers, and published other, non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects. His translations include Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, both for Arcturus Publishing.