Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born into a Jewish family in Prague. In 1906 he received a doctorate in jurisprudence, and for many years he worked a tedious job as a civil service lawyer investigating claims at the state Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. He never married, and published only a few slim volumes of stories during his lifetime. Meditation, a collection of sketches, appeared in 1912; The Stoker: A Fragment in 1913; The Metamorphosis in 1915; The Judgement in 1916; In the Penal Colony in 1919; and A Country Doctor in 1920. Only a few of his friends knew that Kafka was also at work on the great novels that were published after his death from tuberculosis: America, The Trial, and The Castle.

A culturally-influential and celebrated author, Kafka is generally considered to be one of the most accomplished writers of the twentieth century. The term 'Kafkaesque' takes its place in the English vernacular, demonstrating his huge impact on modern thought. In this covetable and must-have boxed set are collected together three of his major works, including the maginificent Metamorphosis and Other Stories.