The Metamorphosis | A Review of "The Metamorphosis"

In the following brief review of the first English translation of ‘‘The Metamorphosis,’’ Spender calls it a ‘‘strange and terrifying nightmare.’’

Franz Kafka’s great allegorical novels have often been compared to ‘‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’’ But, in fact, they differ from any allegories written before because they do not set up a system of symbols which can easily be recognized as corresponding to some system existing in the real world, nor do they offer any solution, any ‘‘moral,’’ as Bunyan does. I believe the fact is that Kafka saw the world much as he describes it in his novels, just as a man who feels himself to be persecuted sees reality fitting into a system, which is really of a spiritual order, to persecute...

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