METAMORPHOSIS, THE

'The metamorphosis' is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing - though absurdly comic - meditation on human feelings of inadequecy, guilt, and isolation, 'The metamorphosis' has taken its place as one of the mosst widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.