Biographical note

'There was no writer like him... He made it possible to actually invent worlds, and with laughter into the bargain. This prophetic assurance was mixed with a brand-new surrealistic humour, and it was honed to hard-edged social satire, still a unique combination'. - Arthur Miller. Karel Capek (1890-1938) was one of the most original Czech writers of the 1920s and 30s, whose works were the inspiration for much of the science fiction of Europe and America. Endlessly inventive and extraordinarily prescient, full of humour and wit, his plays explore and defend man's humanity. He is known for RUR where the robot - an idea Capek was the first to invent - gradually takes over all aspects of human existence except procreation; The Insect play, a satirical fable in which beetles, butterflies and ants give dramatic form to different philosophies of life; The Makropulos Case, which examines human mortality, finally celebrating the average lifespan and The White Plague, a savage and anguished satire against fascist dictatorship and the virus of inhumanity.