Translations
Translations of Metamorphosis
19 translations are recorded in our catalogue.
These are the translated editions we hold records for. A translation we have not catalogued is missing from this list, not from the world.
This book in English
What we found when we looked into it
Written by a person, from the sources listed at the end. Where critics disagree, this says so rather than picking a winner. It is not a catalogue record and does not claim the same authority as the table above.
Researched 2026-08-18. Kafka died 1924; the German original (1915) is PD. English translations are judged individually by their own publication date/copyright status.
Translations
| Translator | Year | Publisher/Imprint | Copyright status | In print? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willa & Edwin Muir | 1948 | Schocken | In copyright (translated 1948; not PD despite age — see note) | Yes — long the standard academic edition |
| Stanley Corngold | 1972 | Bantam / Modern Library / Norton | In copyright | Yes |
| Joachim Neugroschel | 1993 | Schocken | In copyright | Not independently verified |
| Ian Johnston | 1999 | Independent (free online); also Amazon Classics/Broadview | In copyright, but freely distributed by the translator — see licensing note | Yes (free online + paid editions) |
| David Wyllie | 2002 | Independent; released to Project Gutenberg | Public domain by the translator's own release — see licensing note | Yes (free) |
| Michael Hofmann | 2007 | Penguin Classics | In copyright | Yes |
| Susan Bernofsky | 2014 | W.W. Norton | In copyright | Yes |
Note on the Muirs' 1948 date: the translation postdates the 1930 PD cutoff used elsewhere in this batch, so it is treated as in-copyright here despite being the oldest major English Metamorphosis; this is the correct, conservative reading — do not assume "old translation" implies PD without checking the actual date.
Reception
- Comparative sweep per welovetranslations.com, accessed 2026-08-18: the Muirs' 1948 version is "elegant and long-canonical" but the prose "can seem a trifle stilted" and dialogue "antiquated" — the National Library of Scotland (institutional source, cited by the comparison) calls it "diligent and readable" but "no longer regarded as the standard English language edition[s]"; Corngold (1972) is praised for following "Kafka's actual idiom" closely, though "this does not always equate with an easy read" — it "remains the essential reference" for academic study per the same source, even after being "largely superseded... for general readers"; Neugroschel is called "one of the most readable translations"; Hofmann (2007) is "very good at his job," reproducing Kafka's "dry and papery" Prague German while avoiding "modish anachronisms" — The Guardian is cited as noting he risks sounding "slightly archaic" on purpose; Bernofsky (2014) offers "a more contemporary, American sense of Kafka's text," "eminently readable" though "occasionally verbose," having "largely superseded Corngold for general readers."
- The four famous openings, differing on the single hardest translation choice in the text (Kafka's ambiguous "ungeheueres Ungeziefer"): Muirs render it "a gigantic insect," Corngold "a monstrous vermin," Hofmann "a monstrous cockroach," Bernofsky "some sort of monstrous insect" — each choice reflects a real interpretive stance (specificity vs. Kafka's deliberate vagueness), reported via the comparative search sweep of secondary academic/review sources, accessed 2026-08-18.
- Licensing detail worth flagging for the site's legal/PD review, not just the reader: per the same comparison source, Ian Johnston's free translation "remains copyrighted" even though widely circulated free online, and David Wyllie's Gutenberg release "appears... though its copyright status is ambiguous" per that source's own hedge. This dossier treats Wyllie's as the safe PD/free pick because Project Gutenberg's own policy is to only host works it has cleared for US public-domain distribution — but flag this as the one title in the batch where "free online" and "public domain" are not obviously the same claim, and a second check against Gutenberg's own rights statement is worth doing before publishing a licensing claim on-site.
Parallel excerpt
Only the Wyllie translation was independently verified against primary text and carries an unambiguous PD/free-distribution basis (Project Gutenberg hosting).
David Wyllie (2002), public domain (per Project Gutenberg hosting), US — source: Project Gutenberg #5200 (gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm), verified by direct fetch 2026-08-18. Opening line:
"One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin."
Licensing: Public domain per Project Gutenberg. For comparison, the famous alternate renderings of the same clause (not independently re-verified against each translation's primary text in this pass, quoted only as widely reported short phrases under 15 words each): Muirs — "a gigantic insect"; Corngold — "a monstrous vermin"; Hofmann — "a monstrous cockroach."
Decision guide
This is a title where the translation choice is dominated by one interpretive decision (how literally/zoologically to render "Ungeziefer"), and sources present that as a real fork, not a quality gradient: Corngold for readers who want the academic-reference-standard, precise-but-harder read; Bernofsky for the current "superseded Corngold for general readers" pick per the comparison source; Hofmann for a deliberately period-toned register that a major outlet (Guardian, per the same source) reads as an intentional choice rather than a flaw; the Muirs for historical/canonical interest with an explicit caveat that it's "no longer regarded as the standard." Wyllie is the only clean, unambiguous free option verified in this pass — recommend it for a zero-cost read while being upfront it's a serviceable rather than celebrated translation (no major critic praise for it surfaced in this research).