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Novels & StoriesR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)Karel ČapekR.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

Karel Čapek

Novels & StoriesEnglish
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On a remote island, the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots produces artificial workers by the million. They look like people, are made from a synthetic…

Catalogue details

Author
Karel Čapek
Category
Novels & Stories
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

On a remote island, the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots produces artificial workers by the million. They look like people, are made from a synthetic living substance and feel nothing, and they do the world's work and fight its wars. Helena Glory, an idealistic young woman from a society for the rights of robots, comes to set them free and stays to marry the factory's director. As human beings stop working and even stop having children, the robots begin to rise against their makers, until only one man is left alive.

Context and significance

Karel Čapek's play opened in Prague in 1921 and gave the world the word 'robot', from the Czech robota, forced labour, an idea of his brother Josef. Its questions about machines, work and what makes us human are more pressing than ever. This English version, of 1923, is by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair. Its ancestors include Frankenstein and the 'Book of the Machines' in Butler's Erewhon.

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