- end_line
- 1631
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-28T02:25:26.315Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1581
- text
- everyone about it last Christmas—had Christmas really come and gone
already?—if this misfortune hadn’t got in the way, and refuse to let
anyone dissuade him from it. On hearing all this, his sister would
break out in tears of emotion, and Gregor would climb up to her
shoulder and kiss her neck, which, since she had been going out to
work, she had kept free without any necklace or collar.
“Mr. Samsa!”, shouted the middle gentleman to Gregor’s father,
pointing, without wasting any more words, with his forefinger at Gregor
as he slowly moved forward. The violin went silent, the middle of the
three gentlemen first smiled at his two friends, shaking his head, and
then looked back at Gregor. His father seemed to think it more
important to calm the three gentlemen before driving Gregor out, even
though they were not at all upset and seemed to think Gregor was more
entertaining than the violin playing had been. He rushed up to them
with his arms spread out and attempted to drive them back into their
room at the same time as trying to block their view of Gregor with his
body. Now they did become a little annoyed, and it was not clear
whether it was his father’s behaviour that annoyed them or the dawning
realisation that they had had a neighbour like Gregor in the next room
without knowing it. They asked Gregor’s father for explanations, raised
their arms like he had, tugged excitedly at their beards and moved back
towards their room only very slowly. Meanwhile Gregor’s sister had
overcome the despair she had fallen into when her playing was suddenly
interrupted. She had let her hands drop and let violin and bow hang
limply for a while but continued to look at the music as if still
playing, but then she suddenly pulled herself together, lay the
instrument on her mother’s lap who still sat laboriously struggling for
breath where she was, and ran into the next room which, under pressure
from her father, the three gentlemen were more quickly moving toward.
Under his sister’s experienced hand, the pillows and covers on the beds
flew up and were put into order and she had already finished making the
beds and slipped out again before the three gentlemen had reached the
room. Gregor’s father seemed so obsessed with what he was doing that he
forgot all the respect he owed to his tenants. He urged them and
pressed them until, when he was already at the door of the room, the
middle of the three gentlemen shouted like thunder and stamped his foot
and thereby brought Gregor’s father to a halt. “I declare here and
now”, he said, raising his hand and glancing at Gregor’s mother and
sister to gain their attention too, “that with regard to the repugnant
conditions that prevail in this flat and with this family”—here he
looked briefly but decisively at the floor—“I give immediate notice on
my room. For the days that I have been living here I will, of course,
pay nothing at all, on the contrary I will consider whether to proceed
with some kind of action for damages from you, and believe me it would
be very easy to set out the grounds for such an action.” He was silent
and looked straight ahead as if waiting for something. And indeed, his
two friends joined in with the words: “And we also give immediate
notice.” With that, he took hold of the door handle and slammed the
door.
- title
- Chunk 9