Product Description
Price: 15,00€ - 13,24 €
(as of Sep 02, 2024 15:40:13 UTC – Details)
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.”
Thus begins The Meowmorphosis—a bold, startling, and fuzzy-wuzzy new edition of Franz Kafka’s classic nightmare tale, from the publishers of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and finds that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills piling up? And how can he expect them to serve him meals every day? If Gregor is to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal, he’ll have to achieve what he never could before—escape from his parents’ house. Complete with haunting illustrations and a provocative biographical exposé of Kafka’s own secret feline life, The Meowmorphosis will take you on a journey deep into the tortured soul of the domestic tabby.
Editore : Quirk Books (10 maggio 2011)
Lingua : Inglese
Copertina flessibile : 208 pagine
ISBN-10 : 159474503X
ISBN-13 : 978-1594745034
Peso articolo : 204 g
Dimensioni : 13.31 x 1.35 x 20.4 cm
I bought this book used a while back. Haven’t read it yet, but graphics are a wonderfully cheesy sort of type. It arrived in a timely fashion and in great condition. I definitely recommend the seller!
I read the original in high school, and I thought this looked interesting. The writing is wonderful, and you can see bits and pieces of the original in the story. This was a good read.
This is an interesting if too close to the original retelling of Kafka’s work, and making the nature of poor Samsa’s transformation feline rather than insectile or monstrous brings home the point strongly and poignantly. It is true that serious lit is often written in such a way that the readers, should they survive till the bitter end, have had all life, hope and joy drained from their souls. And so it is with Meowmorphosis, as dense and tedious and harrowing as the original, and with the same ending for Samsa.The end that Samsa finds would seem more deserved were he, as in The Metamorphosis, a(n) insect/bug/vermin/monster (Ungeziefer, auf Deutsch). A kitten, an adorable one no less, should have been– adored. I spent the first half of the book awaiting the family’s realization that Samsa deserved to be cuddled and petted. I waited in vain, for the best they have for him is disdain and approbation. And that is the point of the exercise.Samsa seemingly escapes this living death by entering into the world of cats. But in Cat Court he is tried, convicted and sentenced to return to his family life. Were he worthy of catdom, he would have defended himself to the other cats. He would have summoned all the dignity that makes a cat a cat. He would have gone forth denying the court’s jurisdiction and affirming that whatever had occurred before, he was now a cat and thus beyond judgment, even by other cats. Alas, he is essentially lacking, and can only return to his family. After his return, the family’s attitude toward Samsa becomes openly hostile and violent, and that is that. One is free to make what one will of such a work.I was disappointed in that Meowmorphosis was little besides retelling. So much more were possible, had Coleridge brought fresh ideas to the story. Capturing the soul sucking effect of the original by remaining true to its text, he neglects to recast the story in a more contemporary idiom. There is a missed opportunity to look at Samsa and his situation in a new light and find some other fate, if only a different doom, for him. Even with Samsa still doomed, deeper exploration of the characters of the story, the thinking and alternatives behind Samsa’s eventual decision, and of the attitudes of the others would have made Meowmorphosis far better than it was.
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.”In less capable hands, such a prompt would have resulted in a book that simply replaced the word “insect” with “kitten.” But Quirk Books wisely commissioned an extremely capable fantasy writer to re-imagine Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as a work of gonzo literature. I’m happy to report that “The Meowmorphosis” (published by “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies publisher” Quirk Books) is more than the one-note parody its early detractors feared.While the initial chapters stick close to Kafka’s well-known novella, the book spirals out of control (in a good way) when Samsa leaves his parents’ home to relieve them of the burden of caring and feeding for such a large, adorable kitten. Samsa’s adventure is both hilarious and horrifying to witness, and takes meta-fiction to dizzying new heights. The new co-writer absolutely nails Kafka’s voice; the new passages integrate so well with the story that it’s hard to believe the book isn’t entirely written by one author.Co-author Coleridge Cook (a pseudonym for an award-winning fantasy novelist) describes Samsa’s feline behavior in detail, and not a page goes by in which a piece of furniture is not scratched or perched on. Bowls of milk are lapped at, and humans are snuggled with.Will cat-lovers enjoy “The Meowmorphosis”? Yes — there’s no doubt in my mind that cat-lovers will find Samsa just as cute and cuddly as his sister does in the story. I’m a dog person, and even I was LOL-ing by the book’s end.
Not much is to be expected from the recent re-writing of old classics but how could I pass on a kitten version of one of the best novella’s of all time? The start is excellent, very amusing, quite a delight but quickly turns repetitive. Okay, we get it, you’re a kitten. Got it, next! Once Gregor leaves his home and is out in the real world I must say it just fell apart. Gregor meets other cats and it just gets dreadfully boring. In fact I had to skip all the way to the last chapter it became so unbearable. It’s a short read just over 200 pages or so (but twice as long as the original). I think this book had great potential but the re-author just beat it like a dead horse. If they kept the book about the same length as the original and as entertaining as the beginning it surely would have been a success, but the novelty wore off quickly. It’s a shame because I really wanted to like it.