In Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1891), Peyton Farquhar is about to be hanged from a bridge because of a military crime. The rope breaks, he escapes by swimming away, and he reviews the events of his life—all in a hallucination in the instant before his death.

In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (1894), Louise Mallard receives news that her husband has died in a train wreck. Tearlessly, she retreats to her room and reviews the course of her married life. She comes to recognize that she has gained great personal freedom with his death. When her husband suddenly walks in the door—he was not on the train after all—she drops dead. Her family and physician assume she died of joy.

"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, published in 1937, depicts the transformation...