Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader [Paperback]

Peter Kussi (Editor), Arthur Miller (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1990

Capek's best plays, stories, and columns take us from the social contributions of clumsy people to dramatic meditations on mortality and commitment. The Reader includes a new and, at last, complete English translation of R.U.R., the play that introduced the literary robot.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Czech --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Catbird Press; 01 edition (February 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945774079
• ISBN-13: 978-0945774075
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic
  • #36 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Eastern European

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb anthology and gateway into the world of Capek, October 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader (Paperback)

I found this book (along with other Capek masterpieces) while casually browsing in a Prague bookstore. In short, this book is for anyone who may have heard of Karel Capek and wants to know what exactly makes his fans so captivated about this sadly underrated writer. Containing the full Makropoulos Affair and RUR (the Robot play) scripts as well as numerous shorter articles, stories and anecdotes that leaves one thirsting for more, Toward the Radical Centre offers a nigh complete overview of Capek's opus, clearly demonstrating the man's worldview, which combines a profound commitment to individual freedom and dignity, vigorous resistance to all forms of extremism (whether fascist, socialist AND capitalist) and a deep sensibility to the oft unexpressed facets and quirks of human nature. Capek is the perfect antidote for those trying to make sense of the absurdities of man and is as relevant in today's age of extremes (rabid capitalism, fundamentalist explosions etc) as it was in the 1930s.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not having read Capek = missing a vital part of world litera, September 10, 2001

By 

holsbergen (hostert Luxembourg) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader (Paperback)

Outside his native Czechoslovakia the author Karel Capek (to be pronounced as: Chah-pek) is not as well known as he would merit. In fact, he is one of the 20th centurys greatest authors, with a masterful talent for sharp observation and profound reflexion. This collection - Towards the radical center - contains, inter alia, his two most famous theater plays:
1. Rossums Universal Robots, which was written in 1920, introduced the word Robot (Czech for the forced labour of serfs) into practically all modern languages, in the sense of an automaton that without protest performs all the chores humans themselves are loath to do themselves. In his play Capek underlines that the process of creating a class of intelligent servile automatons inevitably leads to cruelty. In the end the robots revolt against human oppression.
2. The Makropoulos Affair. A central theme in this theater play is that of a youth elixir that provides eternal life. It turns out that, in the very long run, this is more a curse than a blessing.

Apart from these two famous plays, the selection contains a number of essays and short stories which, without exception, are very whitty and profound. Every cat lover should read his brilliant one page essay From the point of view of a cat.

In 1936, appalled by the threat of expanding Nazism, Capek elaborated the main theme of Rossums Universal Robots in an even grander way in his novel War with the Newts. This novel - which is not included within this selection but separately available on Amazon - is an anti-utopian (dystopian) novel at least as unsettling as Orwells 1984" or Huxleys Brave New World.
Not having read Capek means missing a vital part of 20th century world literature.
Capek died soon after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The (almost) forgotten Czech genius, March 14, 2000

By 

Walter V. Cicha "Cichacech" (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader (Paperback)

Karel Capek may have won the 1936 Nobel Prize in literature, were it not for his implicitly and at often times explicitly anti-totalitarian views. It is an unspoken truth that the Swedish Nobel Academy feared Hitler's growing regime as much as anybody in Europe... Instead, Mr. Capek died a heartbroken man in 1938, a few months after Britain's Chamberlain handed the writer's beloved Czechoslovakia over to Hitler, in exchange for "peace in Europe." Germany invaded Poland a few months later... Karel Capek was amongst Europe's greatest writers and playwrights during the period between WWI and WWII. His love of mankind and all living creatures is legendary. Few people have ever written with such eloquence, or insight, about matters of eternal significance. It should also be noted that his anti-Utopian play "R.U.R.," which gave birth to the only Czech word in the English language (robot), was offered to the world 9 years before Aldous Huxley's somewhat analogous 1932 "Brave New World." The collection of plays, essays and short stories under review is exceptional. It gives the reader a most enjoyable and poignant introduction to the heart and soul of the Czech people, through the wisdom of their most honorable representative. Arthur Miller's foreword also is a masterpiece...