This book contains a selection of pieces of varying length and literary quality, the more substantial ones being the "The Metamorphoses", "The Stoker", "The Judgement", and "In the Penal Colony". The Metamorphoses is probably one of his best known works, and one of the better pieces in this book. Like most Kafka, it is so unusual that one needs to form some kind of explanation, or interpretation of it, to get past the disconcerting affect that it has when read through at face value. They are pieces that do not seem to exist just for the plot, or for the quality of the writing, but contain something beyond these that needs to be uncovered.
Common themes in Kafka's work are punishment, guilt, and ennui, and they are all not far below the suface, if they are below the surface at all. This, like the Trial and the Penal colony, are most easily interpreted as expressions of Kafka's own sense of guilt and Jewish self-loathing and alienation. No other authors of such literary merit, with whom I am acquainted, display the darkness, this particularly surreal yet mundane hopelessness, that is idiosyncratic to Kafka. Yet not all of his works in this collection do have this atmosphere.
There is also a vivid and childlike joy in some pieces, such as at the end of the Stoker, and also in a few of the Meditations. This is so unusual for Kafka, and is refreshing as much because it is a change of mood, as it is an improvement of mood. That is, if one type of mood can be described as being better than another, which is a serious question as far as the works of Kafka are concerned, for the reason that some might claim that the state of melancholy gives one greater access to the aesthetic. This is of course subjective, but a quite well documented phenomenon in literature, tied with the suffering of the artist. Kafka though doesn't seem to suffer because he is an artist, but is rather an artist because he suffers, because it is the only thing which allows him to express his self-hate creatively, not destructively (ie. via the masochism which often features in his stories).
Though some of what Kafka writes deserves to be accounted among the best in German literature, some of the pieces in this collection were really quite poor, and Kafka was said not to be pleased with some of them himself. Generally, the pieces in this volume are not as good as Kafka's Trial (with the exception of some of the quite small pieces) , but I would still recommend it for the good parts which do form the majority. ( )

This was a very interesting collection of stories written by Franz Kafka. While some of the stories I found hard to follow, others were very intriguing. One thing I really enjoyed about this book was that the some of the stories were short so they were great for reading on the bus. I wouldn't have to stop in the middle of a chapter like you have to do with some other books. ( )

First off: I've wanted to read "Metamorphosis" (or "The Transformation", as it's called here) for years. Everyone knows the one-line premise - guy wakes up one morning to find he's now a grotesque thing - but where, I always wondered, does it go from there? What does he do next? So I was fascinated and tickled to see that his immediate response is to lie back in bed for a while and lazily fret about typical work woes.

The rest of the collection, sadly, is a bit of a mixed bag.

The stories pre-"Metamorphosis" are uncompelling. The subjects aren't of much excitement or interest, and the telling is generally dull. Perhaps unsurprising, when reading the earliest stories of a writer who was still learning his craft.

The stories post-bug, on the other hand, are very hit-or-miss. When Kafka has a wholly original idea to work with, the stories are truly fascinating, often from the opening line: For instance, "Public interest in exhibition fasting has suffered a marked decline in recent decades." Or, "Esteemed gentlemen of the academy! You have done me the honour of asking me to present a report to the academy concerning my past life as an ape." Lines that immediately make you sit up and take notice, immediately interested in knowing the rest.

But some of his later stories also suffer from a tendency to be almost entirely symbolic, with very few surface elements or any sort of compelling narrative. The writing might be confusingly dreamlike ("A Country Doctor"), or drily didactic ("Eleven Sons"), but in either case it's offputting, frustrating, and an entirely exhausting read. There is still the occasional gem like "In the Penal Colony", but these tend to be rare.

I do need to point out, though, that the translation is barely adequate, and in some cases frankly terrible. Franz Kafka is notoriously hard to translate, as his writing style in the original German used certain tricks and leaps that can't really be replicated in English ... but I think that just proves the importance of a translation that does more than just re-encode the precise words from one language to the next: That approach, especially here, just leaves a style of writing that comes off as dry, overly explanatory, and almost wholly without flavor.

The stories I did like, I liked a lot, so I might be interest in attempting a novel at some point. But I'd want some assurance that the translation is one that's actually been praised, and not just tolerated or banged-out. It really does make all the difference.

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Tous les textes parus du vivant de Kafka, I. Édition de Claude David