R.U.R. A Play (Rossum's Universal Robots): A Play in Three Acts and an Epilogue

Capek, Karel ; Trans. by P. Selver; adapted for the English stage by Nigel Playfair

Published by Humphrey Milford/OUP, London, 1942

About this Item

Repr., translated from Czech, original black wraps with red lettering front wrap, pp 102, i, Previous owner's blind stamap front wrap, bookseller ticket inside. Small mark last (blank) page, otherwise clean. Small chip foot of backstrip. Very good condition. Science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Capek, first performed in England in 1923. The play introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole, and has been enormously influential in popular culture. In 1938 a 35-minute adaptation of a section of the play was broadcast on BBC Television: the first piece of television science-fiction ever to be broadcast. The robots in the play eventually rebel against and exterminate the human race. One critic has described Capek's robots as epitomizing "the traumatic transformation of modern society by the First World War and the Fordist assembly line", although Capek himself saw the play as part comedy and ending with faith that humanity would survive albeit in a different form. Early printings of the play are uncommon.

Seller Inventory # 103645

Bibliographic Details

• Title: R.U.R. A Play (Rossum's Universal Robots): A Play in Three Acts and an Epilogue
• Publisher: Humphrey Milford/OUP, London
• Publication Date: 1942
• Binding: Stiff Wraps
• Edition: 9th impression.