Die Verwandlung
First edition of Kafka’s masterpiece, the preferred issue in illustrated wrappers.
A beautiful copy preserved as issued.
In-8 de 72 pp., (4) ff. Exemplaire broché, couverture imprimée en rouge et noir illustrée d’une lithographie d’Ottomar Starke.
210 x 130 mm.
Kafka, Franz. Die verwandlung. [The Metamorphosis].
Leipzig, Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915.
First edition, the preferred issue in illustrated wrappers, of one of masterpieces of world literature.
Le texte avait d’abord paru dans la revue Die Weissen Blatter.
L’un des rares ouvrages de Kafka parus de son vivant.
Tirée à 800 exemplaires dont 400 à peine furent vendus. Le restant de l’édition fut remis en vente avec la mention de deuxième édition.
With the famous illustration by Ottomar Starke on the front wrapper. Kafka was adamant that the illustration not depict a bug, writing in a letter to the publishing house: "The insect itself must not be illustrated by a drawing. It cannot be shown at all, not even from a distance."
L’un des ouvrages les plus célèbres de la littérature du XXe siècle.
"On the evening of November 17, 1912, a young employee of the Workmen's Accident Insurance Agency, in Prague, sat down to work on a 'troubling little story' that had occurred to him 'in bed' the previous night. After spending the first part of the day in the office, he returned to the apartment he shared with his parents and sisters, had lunch, napped, took a walk, and then did a series of strengthening and stretching calisthenics. This was his daily ritual before settling in for the evening - and often far into the night - to what he considered his true life, a life dedicated to writing. Then, whether acting on a long-meditated plan or following an obscure, sudden intuition, he set down the words of the first hammerlike sentence of what would become his most famous story and one of the defining works of modern imaginative fiction, The Metamorphosis, or more simply, 'The Transformation': 'When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect.' Ever since, readers have been mesmerized, amused, puzzled, irritated, and unsettled by Gregor's life-changing transformation" (Mark M. Anderson, ed. The Metamorphosis).
« Fable philosophique sur le thème de la culpabilité et conte fantastique qui explore les peurs humaines, La Métamorphose se place parmi les chefs-d'œuvre de la littérature du XXe siècle » (Claude David).
A beautiful copy preserved in its original wrappers, as issued.
