The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis Full Book Introduction

The Metamorphosis is a novel written by Franz Kafka about a man named Gregor who wakes up one day only to find that he has been transformed into a giant beetle. The novel follows Gregor as he navigates his new life and the challenges it presents while also exploring themes of isolation and alienation.

Author : Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Jewish novelist and short story writer. Born in Prague in 1883, Kafka is widely considered one of the major figures of 20th century literature. His works, grappling with feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and alienation, have been interpreted as representation of the anxieties and struggles in modern life.

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the book The Metamorphosis.

Are you looking for a unique and thought provoking read? Look no further than The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This classic novel tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a man who wakes up one morning to find that he has been transformed into a giant insect. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous？ So why wait? Get your hands on a bookey of The Metamorphosis today and embark on a journey of self discovery and contemplation. Trust us, and you won’t be disappointed.

The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka written in 1915. As one of the major figures of 20th century literature, Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and wrote primarily in German, although his work has been translated into many languages. He is known for his distinctive style, which combines elements of realism, absurdity, and surrealism to explore themes of isolation, powerlessness, and the search for meaning in modern, industrialized society. The Metamorphosis, the book we are going to learn today, is one of his most typical works and has a profound influence on the development of modern fiction. Now, let’s together explore its charm.

It follows the story of Gregor Samsa, a poor travelling salesman who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect. As a beetle, he cannot take care of his whole families as before. In other words, he has become a burden for the Gregor’s family. Latter, his families decide to isolate and neglect him, which lead to his death. The Metamorphosis is a powerful exploration into themes of alienation and acceptance, with implications for readers still relevant today and has inspired many to think more deeply about our place in the world.

The author of The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, was a Czech born writer who is widely considered one of the major figures of 20th century literature. Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and wrote primarily in German, although his work has been translated into many languages. He is known for his distinctive style, which combines elements of realism, absurdity, and surrealism to explore themes of isolation, powerlessness, and the search for meaning in modern, industrialized society. Kafka’s most famous works include The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle, all of which are considered classic works of literature and have had a profound influence on the development of modern fiction.

On the one hand, The Metamorphosis has had a significant impact on literature and cultural studies. It is often considered a classic of modernist literature, and it has inspired many other works of fiction, including The Fly and The Incredible Hulk. The book has also been interpreted as a commentary on the industrialization and modernization of society, as well as a metaphor for the experiences of Jews in Eastern Europe during Kafka’s lifetime.

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People Book Introduction And Notes

This book, as the title says, is about the seven habits of highly effective people. It teaches us how to achieve victory from the private to the public spheres, thereby making a tremendous change in life and career, and attaining both success and happiness. Known as the “Bible” of the American business community and government management department, the book is included in the training course of the Fortune Global 500 corporations, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the ten most influential management books in history.

Author : Stephen Covey

The author of this book, Stephen Covey, was a world-renowned management guru and a well-respected leadership authority. He has a high and long-standing reputation in leadership theories, family and interpersonal relationships, and personal management. In the US and even around the world, his accomplishment of thoughts is comparable with that of Carnegie, Peter F. Drucker, and Jack Welch. Covey is called “a master of thoughts” of the American academic community. Time magazine named him “one of the twenty-five most influential people in American history”, and “a mentor of human potential.”

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. It’s mainly about how to become a highly effective person, and attain both success and happiness.

Many of us have shared an experience of having so many things to do every day, and feeling that time is not enough. Despite working all day long and feeling exhausted at the end of the day, we can’t seem to get all the work done. However, there are some people around us who barely work overtime, but still do a great job. They can even enjoy some leisure time. Why is that? Are they born with a higher IQ?

The truth? This is because some of them have developed good habits of high effectiveness, which leads to a comfortable yet highly effective life.

Perhaps you are wondering: what is high effectiveness? High effectiveness refers to the balance between production and production capacity, which is referred as the P/PC balance in this book. P stands for production, and PC stands for production capacity. Have you heard of the fable about the goose and the golden egg? A farmer has a goose that can lay golden eggs, and he soon becomes fabulously rich. However, the greedy farmer becomes unsatisfied with only one golden egg per day, so he kills the goose, hoping to take out all of the golden eggs from it. To his surprise, there are no golden eggs inside the goose. The goose is dead, so there’s no way he can get another golden egg. The farmer has ruined everything for himself.

In the above fable, what is produced is the golden eggs, and production capacity, namely, the producing asset or capacity to produce, is the goose that lays golden eggs. If we “focus on golden eggs and neglect the goose,” we will lose both the goose and the eggs. Conversely, if we “only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs,” we can feed neither ourselves nor the goose.

Therefore, only when you take good care of the goose can you get golden eggs. And only when you control your desire to ask too much from the goose can you keep it alive. Likewise, only when you strike a balance between work performance and well-being, can you attain real effectiveness and make greater achievements. This book tells us exactly the specific ways that can help you easily achieve high effectiveness.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby  Book Introduction

The story unfolds when Nick, a poor worker, accidentally stumbles into the life of lavish millionaire Gatsby. Nick’s distant cousin, Daisy, was the young Gatsby’s sweetheart. Now she is married to someone else. Gatsby life is decadent. Nick discovers Gatsby is still in love with Daisy. Gatsby spends money recklessly to impress her and rekindles their affair. It is an immoral and deceitful liaison, taking place behind Gatsby’s glamorous veneer. Later, Gatsby realizes the relationship cannot simply reset to the way it was. The story ends with a string of tragedies, someone is run over by a car, and the young Gatsby is found dead in his private pool.

Author : Francis Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most outstanding writers of the twentieth century. A representative of the Lost Generation, he chronicled the “Jazz Age, ” indeed, he was the period’s poet laureate, popularizing the term in his works. His career encompasses over one hundred novels and short stories, including This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tender Is the Night. His best-known work is The Great Gatsby. It has received widespread acclaim, ranking among the “Top 100” in lists compiled by The Guardian, the BBC, and Time magazine, cementing Fitzgerald’s preeminent status in modern American literature.

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The book tells the story of the millionaire Jay Gatsby’s tragic attempts to rekindle a lost romance.

In 1998, the U.S. Publisher Modern Library invited several critics to nominate the top 100 English novels of the century. The Great Gatsby came in second after James Joyce’s Ulysses. The American poet and critic T. S. Eliot called it “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James,” while the renowned director and choreographer Tony Tanner crowned it “the supreme American novel.” The novel is a staple in the U.S. middle school curriculum and beloved across the country.

However, when it was first published, this seminal work of literature met with a lukewarm reception. At the time, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s earlier novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and the Damned, had already won him acclaim as a writer. Compared to those two works, The Great Gatsby was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 20,000 copies. It wasn’t until decades later, after the Second World War, that the novel started to gain popularity. It would later become a best seller, continuing to sell millions of copies through the twenty-first century.

The Great Gatsby describes American society during the 1920s. After the First World War, the US economy was booming. Evidence of lavish entertainment and celebration could be seen everywhere. And many people indulged their hedonistic, decadent lifestyles, straying from traditional moral and ethical constraints. Fitzgerald christened this era the “Jazz Age.” His writing presents an objective view of the pleasure-seeking conditions he witnessed. That’s why he became known as the chronicler and poet laureate of the period.

The novel identifies and defines the vibrant spirit of the Jazz Age. The book contrasts the luxury of the living conditions with the tragic story of a failed love. Going far beyond the romance itself, The novel delves into the inevitable destruction caused by the relentless pursuit of the “American dream.”

How To Win Friends And Influence People

How To Win Friends And Influence People Full chapter Introduction

A practical work on interpersonal relations, this book takes an in-depth look at human nature and taps into the hidden weaknesses of humanity. Through reading this book, one can get to know more about themselves and make further self-improvements. This book became a worldwide bestseller immediately after its debut. It has been translated into almost every major language in the world within decades of its release. It’s hailed as the bible of social skills. In 2011, it was number 19 on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential books.

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we’ll unlock the book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Many of us are familiar with or have even read this book. It has continued to gain popularity and receive acclaim from readers around the world. It has also been published in many editions. Data shows that this book has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, a truly remarkable number in the history of publication. It provides people with guidelines for dealing with others, in addition to sharing many ideas about how to live a happy life. Numerous people have benefited from it. Ever since Carnegie revealed the secret to harmonious relationships to many people around the world, other books on the subject of interpersonal relationships have emerged. Due to his enormous influence, Carnegie has been praised as one of the greatest experts in self-help and interpersonal relationships.

It may be hard to imagine that, while Carnegie is now a revered mentor in the self-help industry, he used to suffer a lot from his inability to effectively deal with people. Carnegie was not born a genius of social skills. He learned from his own personal experiences and turned them into assets. Carnegie was born in the 1880s in a small town in Missouri. His family was poor, so he was always hungry and cold. Due to malnutrition, little Carnegie was rather skinny and short, making his ears, which were disproportionately big compared to his head, seemed even larger. Because of his big ears, little Carnegie was often teased by his classmates. One day, he got into a fight with a boy in his class. He said something very mean to the boy, who became so furious that he threatened to cut off Carnegie’s ears. Carnegie was terrified. In the next few days, he kept worrying about his ears being cut off. He was even too scared to fall asleep, fearing that his ears would be cut off in his dreams.

But this was not his only concern. When he was a kid, Carnegie would dwell on anxieties to the point of tears. He worried about so many absurd things, for example, being buried alive like a seed, getting killed by a lightning strike, or going to hell after dying. He also worried that no girl would ever want to marry him, or that he would be kidnapped by aliens.

Animal Farm

Animal Farm Full chapter Introduction

The animals of Manor Farm rise up after enduring unremitting oppression under human control. The animals form a plan to drive away the humans and establish a place to live freely and happily. Once liberated, they renamed farm, christening it “Animal Farm.” However, a pig named Napoleon appropriates the spoils of their revolution, and this egalitarian animal society gradually slides towards dictatorship. Under Napoleon’s watch, the animals’ lives are more miserable than ever; they have as little to eat as they did when humans were still in charge. Animal Farm is George Orwell’s most famous political satire. The animals act out the conditions of a society under totalitarianism.

Overview | Chapter 1

Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the famous novel, Animal Farm.

George Orwell wrote this political satire in the form of a fable in 1945, giving it the title Animal Farm. The book shocked the world, fueling conflicts between capitalism in the USA and the socialism of the Soviet Union. The story triggered different responses from the two opposing ideologies.

In the capitalist countries of the West, the work was warmly received. People believed it was an objective evaluation of a socialist country and told the truth about its living conditions. Western societies embraced the story, and its popularity grew. Animal Farm was translated into more than a dozen languages, adapted for children, illustrated and turned into animated movies. Orwell himself became a spokesperson and arbiter of his time, with influential moral views and a linguistic style that influenced the works of many western novelists and playwrights of the 1950s and 60s.

However, in Communist Russia, the novel was regarded as anti-Soviet, anti-socialist, and was banned for many years. In fact, the book is widely regarded as a revelation of the dark side of Joseph Stalin’s influence in the Soviet Union and an attack on totalitarianism across the world. In the preface to the Ukrainian edition, Orwell says that some elements of the plot were inspired by the historical facts of the Russian Revolution. During the Cold War, the United States actively used the book as a propaganda weapon against the Soviet Union.

So is this really an anti-socialist story? Why did it touch a nerve on both sides? Next, we will discuss the novel’s plot in three parts:

Firstly, we will explain the novel’s narrative framework. We will hear how the animals on the farm plan their revolution and what kinds of power struggle take place as the revolt gets underway. And how the ruler gradually starts to betray the revolutionaries.

In the second section, we will analyze the ideas this work seeks to convey and the symbolic representation behind the character of the various animals.

In part three, we’ll talk about Orwell’s approach to writing, how his experiences changed his ideological views, and why he wanted to use animal imagery to illustrate his ideas.