As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning, from restless dreams he found himself recast in his bed into a gigantic insect.

He was laying on his hard, as it were armour-plated, back and when he raised his head a little he could see his domelike brown tummy separated into stiff arched parts on top of which the bed quilt could barely keep in place and was about to slide off entirely.

His numerous legs, which were pitifully delicate corresponded to the remainder of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.

With its stunning, eccentric, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his chef-d'oeuvre, The Metamorphosis.

It is the story of a youthful man who, changed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, evolves an entity of disrepute to his family, a stranger in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man.