'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.