METROPOLIS. ROMAN. Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-273 [274] [275: blank] [276-280: ads], original four-color pictorial wrappers, all edges untrimmed. First edition, first printing. Anti-utopia set in a gigantic city in the year 2000 "where capitalists oppress a mass of proletarian helots." - Fisher, p. 128. A restitution fantasy in which a patriarchal order is ultimately reestablished. The Fritz Lang movie adaptation had a mythic scale that would not be challenged -- "The Shape of Things to Come" aside -- for decades to come. 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. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Lexikon 2, pp. 134-6. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256. A fine copy. A stunning copy of the seldom seen paperbound issue of the first printing. (#143430).
Price: $7,500.00
No statement of printing.