'When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect ...' So begins Franz Kafka's most famous story Die Verwandlung or Metamorphosis. Franz Kafka is one of the most intriguing writers of the twentieth century; adjective 'kafkaesque' evokes his bizarre world in which characters grapple with faceless bureaucracy, find themselves turned into insects, or starve themselves to death in the name of art. This Very Short Introduction Ritchie Robertson provides the newcomer with an up-to-date and accessible examination of this fascinating author: beginning with an examination of Kafka's life, he then goes on to discuss some of the major themes that emerge in Kafka's work, using his short story Metamorphosis as a recurring example.

Ritchie Robertson 牛津大学德语教授，圣约翰学院研究员。他的著述多是围绕卡夫卡、海涅和托马斯·曼展开的。他也为《牛津世界经典》和《企鹅经典书系》翻译过一些18世纪和19世纪的德国文学作品。