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One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back,[^1] and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. **The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any** moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked. "What's happened to me? " he thought.

[^1]: It wasn't a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls.

*A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table - Samsa was a travelling salesman - and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame*.[^2] It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer. Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather.

[^3]: Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. ***"How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense"***, he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn't get into that position.