What particularly interested me, however, is that they are also a surprising direction for Mendelsund to go in.Īs Peter himself notes in his original post, the natural impulse when designing Kafka is to draw on the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th Century. The covers are exceptional designs and surprising reinterpretations of Kafka. I’m also pretty sweet on the Folio Society edition.I posted about Peter Mendelsund’s reinterpretations of Kafka for Schocken Books rather breathlessly earlier this week, and I wanted to revisit them now I’ve had some time for greater reflection. I’m not going to lie: I think my favorites are the final three, designed by artists for fun. I’d love to know if you know of other editions and their provenance or if you have a favorite interpretation of the story in any of the above. This take was created by Nicholas Grinere. This dreamy nightmare was created by Dane Cozens. Here are three knockouts, each linked to their creators. Of course, in addition to professionally designed editions of The Metamorphosis, other artists have put their spin on the cover. Vallardi (This rendition of The Bug is the closest to what my mind has depicted)ġ995 by Diogenes (This is another cover with Kafka’s own art)Ģ012 by Willem van Toorn/Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep I’m including them because I am a completionist, but really, I’m 100% here for the cover designs alone.ġ974 by Εγνατία (bonus for this being one of Kafka’s own creepy/weird drawings)ġ993 by A. It’s also quite likely some of the editions might be mislabeled or misdated. This is not comprehensive, as I’ve purposefully chosen covers that I could track a year on and that were not made available through digital devices only (as in covers made through Createspace or for Kindle-only). Since finding the provenance of all these covers proved challenging - and it was really challenging to find covers that were prior to the 1950s - consider this gallery more about the ways that The Bug has been interpreted through time and cultures than about design aesthetics. I’ve pulled together a big collection of covers for The Metamorphosis, both in English editions, as well as foreign editions. This was the original cover from 1915, and Kafka got his wish:Īfter that, though, we got to see The Bug in its many creepy, crawly manifestations. It is not even to be seen from a distance.” The letter Kafka wrote read, “”The insect itself is not to be drawn. When The Metamorphosis was first published, Kafka told his published he did not want any representation of the insect Gregor becomes to be on the cover.

The metamorphosis book cover