"The Metamorphosis" is a short novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elias Canetti described it as "one of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written..."