"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." The Metamorphosis - the masterpiece of Franz Kafka - was first published in 1915 and is one of the seminal works of fiction of the twentieth century. The novel is cited as a key influence for many of today's leading authors; as Auden wrote: "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man". Traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. The cause of Gregor's transformation is never revealed, and as he attempts to adjust to his new condition he becomes a burden to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become. A harrowing, yet strangely comic, meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosishas taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.