Kafka's Selected Stories: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)

As others have pointed out, this collection omits "The Metamorphosis," but it does contain a good selection of the other major stories, including "In the Penal Colony," "The Hunter Gracchus," and "Building the Great Wall of China" ("The Great Wall of China" in earlier versions). "The Metamorphosis" has it's own Norton edition. I found the background material - especially the diary entries and selections from Kafka's letters - helpful in understanding this unusual writer.Also helpful is the editor's "Preface to understanding of Kafka" that provides essential information on Kafka's place as a German-speaking Jew in the Czech region of the late Austro-Hungarian empire.

No Metamorphosis - seriously? I hope the Norton team who decided to omit this all turn into cockroaches. Kafka would agree.

Kafka deserves his reputation!

This is a terrific collection of Kafka's stories followed by fine critical essays on a number of them. One caveat: Contrary to the implication in the previous reviewer's comments, this edition does NOT contain the famous long story "Metamorphosis." Had there been a "Search Inside!" option, we would have known that Norton did not "select" this great work to be among the "selected stories."