METROPOLIS. ROMAN. Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-273 [274] [275: blank] [276-280: ads], original decorated green cloth, front panel stamped in gold, spine panel stamped in brown and gold, rules and publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel, all edges stained yellow. First edition. 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. Slight spine lean, a bit of fade to spine panel, small area of wear to cloth at lower spine end, mild wear to lower corner tips, a very good copy in very good pictorial dust jacket with wear along top and bottom edges with some fraying and shallow loss at spine ends and corner tips, and some general tanning and dust soiling. A nice example of a very scarce jacket. Accompanied by a fine copy of the first printing of the 1975 Gregg Press edition. (#155509)).
Price: $7,500.00
No statement of printing.