METROPOLIS

Harbou, Thea von

Published by The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd, London, 1927

About this Item

Small octavo, pp. [1-13] 14-250 [251: blank] [252: printer's imprint] [253-256: blank] [note: first and last leaves used as front and rear paste-downs], original decorated red-brown boards, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition in English. The first printing without mention of this title in list of Readers Library books on page [7]. Novelization of the screenplay by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou of Lang's 1926 UFA film which was about three hours long in it's original seventeen-reel version. "Though often described as the first SF epic of the cinema, this famous German film -- of which no complete version now exists -- has just as much in common with the cinema of the Gothic. Though set in a future visually emphasized by towering buildings and vast brooding machines, the city of Metropolis has an underworld dark and medieval in atmosphere . The story of METROPOLIS is trite and its politics ludicrously simplistic; but these flaws cannot detract from the sheer visual power of the film -- a combination of the high Expressionistic sets (the work of art directors Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut and Karl Vollbrecht) and Lang's direction . METROPOLIS, which was extremely expensive and not a financial success, almost bankrupted the studio that made it (UFA). The film was cut almost as soon as it was released, and -- still in the 1920s -- shortened yet more radically in the UK and USA. Even recently restored archival versions are half an hour shorter than the original." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 804-5. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123; (1995) 2-132; and (2004) II-1197. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 104. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Bleiler (1978), p. 93. Reginald 14733. See Bloch (2002) 1370. A fine copy in fine first printing dust jacket (with wraparound illustration by Aubrey Hammond) that does not list METROPOLIS on the rear flap. A beautiful white paper copy in the striking four-color pictorial dust jacket, virtually as new, save for a minute chip at upper right front corner -- a stunning copy. (#130728). Seller Inventory # 130728

Bibliographic Details

Title: METROPOLIS

Publisher: The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd, London

Publication Date: 1927

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition