The Absolute At Large [Hardcover]

Karel Capek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2008

The Absolute at Large By KAREL CAPE. First published in 1927.CONTENTS: CHAPTER PAOBI The Advertisement 7 The Karbitrator n Pantheism 17IV. God in the Cellar, 23V Bishop Linda 29VI The BoardMeeting 36VII Developments 41VIII The Dredge 46IX The Ceremony 53X Saint Ellen 59XI. The First Blow Struck 64XII Doctor Blahous 70XIII The Chroniclers Apology 75XIV The Land of Plenty 80XV Disaster 86XVI In the Mountains 92XVII The Hammer and Star 98XVIII, In the Night Editors Room 102XIX. The Process of Canonization 108XX St Kilda 113XXI The Telegram 119XXII The Old Patriot 124XXIII. The Augsburg Imbroglio 130CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGEXXIV. The Napoleon of the MountainBrigade 136XXV. The socalled Greatest War 141XXVI. The Battle of Hradec Kralove 145XXVII. A Coral Island in the Pacific 150XXVIII. At Seven Cottages 155XXIX. The Last Battle 159XXX. The End of Everything 163. CHAPTER I: THE ADVERTISEMENT. ONE New Years Day, 1943, G H Bondy, head of the great Metallo Electncal Company, was sitting as usual reading his paper He skipped the news from the theatre of war rather disrespectfully, avoided the Cabinet crisis, then crowded onsail for the Peoples Journal, which had grown long ago tofive times its ancient size, now afforded enough canvas for an ocean voyage for the Finance and Commerce section Here he cruised about for quite a while, then furled his sails, and abandoned himself to his thoughtsThe Coal Crisis he said to himself Mines getting worked out the Ostrava basin suspending work for years.Heavens above, its a sheer disaster Well have to importUpper Silesian coal. Just work out what that will add to thecost of our manufactures, and then talk about competition.Were in a pretty fix And if Germany raises her tariff, wemay as well shut up shop And the Industrial Banks goingdown, too What a wretched state of affairs What a hopeless, stupid, stifling state of affairs Oh, damn the crisisHere G H Bondy, Chairman of the Board of Directors,came to a pause Something was fidgeting him and would nollet him rest He traced it back to the last page of his discardednewspaper It was the syllable TioNj only part of a word, fothe fold of the paper came just in front of the T. It was thivery incompleteness which had so curiously impressed itselupon him. Well, hang it, its probably IRON PRODUCTION Bondpondered vaguely, or PREVENTION,, or, maybe, RESTITUTION. . . And the Azote shares have gone down, too. The stagnations simply shocking. The positions so bad that itridiculous . But thats nonsense who would advertisethe RESTITUTION of anything? More likely RESIGNATION Itssure to be RESIGNATION.With a touch of annoyance, G H Bondy spread out thenewspaper to dispose of this irritating word It had nowvanished amid the chequering of the small advertisements Hehunted for it from one column to another, but it had concealeditself with provoking ingenuity. Mr. Bondy then worked fromthe bottom up, and finally started again from, the righthandside of the page.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Capek''s dialog is fantastic, his characters richly drawn. But his vision of a world transcendently captivated by an apparent higher calling and then hoodwinked into war for nine years over a source of fuel is so prescient, it makes the novel seem like it was written today."—Cara Hoffman, NPR''s All Things Considered

(Cara Hoffman NPR's All Things Considered )

"Capek''s skewering of human greed and faith is all the more impressive given that the novel was originally published in 1922."—Pedro Ponce, Review of Contemporary Fiction

(Pedro Ponce Review of Contemporary Fiction )

"Capek offers the tale of a machine capable of generating limitless energy that also releases the unknown spiritual essence locked within physical matter, with cataclysmic results."—Library Journal

(Library Journal )

"The Absolute at Large goes beyond the religious fervor of Nazism, foreshadowing the collectivization of Communism and the emergence of a free market too wide for any known West."—Village Voice

(Village Voice )

"A satirical science fiction classic. . . . Though Capek wrote The Absolute at Large more than 80 years ago, it absolutely retains its wit and relevance today."—Donna McCrohan Rosenthal, News Review

(Donna McCrohan Rosenthal News Review ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, Czech (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hesperides Press (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1443725315
• ISBN-13: 978-1443725316
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,106,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All books by Capek are required reading for civilised person, September 17, 1999

By 

jan (rural Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Absolute at Large (Classics of Science Fiction) (Hardcover)

Perhaps as a companion piece to War with the Newts this one should have been titled War with God, since this book attacks religious intolerance with the same gentle, sad, hilarious ridiculousness that he employed with devastating effect against racial intolerance in Newts. As a novel it violates most every rule of how a "good" novel should be written, in terms of structure, plot, cohesiveness, restraint, character development, etc and as such it is a fine book. And, of course, it is very very Czech.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Abolute at Large, August 23, 2011

By 

FuelRack - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Absolute at Large (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

Reading the The Absolute at Large, and knowing what we know now and what Capek(the best Czech author of the 20th century) could only imagine in 1922 was fascinating. Here was a man who had just witnessed the crumbling of the Austria Hungarian, German and Russian empires and the enormous waste of human life, especially of young men. Life in Central Europe in the early '20s was bitter and people saw a bleak future and their view of God "the Absolute" was hardly positive. Looking 20 years into a future four years after the end of "The Great War" and foretelling "The Greatest War" between 1944 and 1953 was amazing, and unfortunately very close to what actually happened. But it was Capek's biting satire on how man always believes he is right and others are wrong, especially when it comes to religion, that was especially interesting. The failure of man to think broadly and see the world through other's eyes is a story as old as man. Capek tells the story brilliantly. The book itself is poorly published and obviously photocopied from another source. Buy the paperbook instead of the hard copy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but poorly printed, June 24, 2011

By 

Tim - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Absolute At Large (Hardcover)

I agree in part with both of the previous reviews. This was a very good book and I'll read more of Karel Capek. It has a very clever theme and is not only good fiction but a social commentary as well.

However, I would buy the paperback instead of this hardback edition. It has obviously been photocopied and has many defects, including almost no periods at the ends of sentences, very strange spacing and a few duplicated paragraphs. Some pages were truncated at the edges (copy machine), and there were many extraneous marks.

Note that the preview on Amazon is the paperback and does not display those defects.

That being said, it was still readable. If you can't get a better print copy, get this one. It is still readable and the content more than makes up for the defects.