War With The Newts - Softcover

Karel Capek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0945774109 ISBN 13: 9780945774105

Publisher: Catbird Press, 2001

Synopsis

One of the great anti-utopian satires of the twentieth century, an inspiration to writers from Orwell to Vonnegut, at last in a modern translation. Man discovers a species of giant, intelligent newts and learns to exploit them so successfully that the newts gain skills and arms enough to challenge man's place at the top of the animal kingdom. Along the way, Karel Capek satirizes science, runaway capitalism, fascism, journalism, militarism, even Hollywood.

About this title

Review:

"A bracing parody of totalitarianism and technological overkill, one of the most amusing and provocative books in its genre." --Philadelphia Inquirer

"Appreciation of this classic novel." --New York Times, https: //www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/books/in-praise-of-karel-capek.html

From the Back Cover:

Originally written in 1936, two years before Capek's death and three years before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, War with the Newts is considered by many to be Capek's greatest book. Working in the "fantastic" satiric tradition of Wells, Orwell, and Vonnegut, Capek chronicles the discovery of a colony of highly intelligent giant salamanders off the coast of an Indonesian island. Capek sardonically details all the reactions of the civilized world - from horror to skepticism, from intellectual fascination to mercantile opportunism - and the ultimate destruction from which it (and the newts) might not escape.

About this edition

• Publisher: Catbird Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0945774109
• ISBN 13: 9780945774105
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240