Thea von Harbou

The mysterious, fabulously wealthy Maharajah of Eschnapur kidnaps famous architect Michael F rbringer and offers him unlimited resources to build a tomb to exceed the grandeur of the Taj Mahal. But the calculating, all-powerful prince is not what he seems, and the commission is actually the centerpiece of a diabolical murder plot. An unwilling journey into the heart of darkness begins F rbringer's descent into a sinister, dream-like India, where he is imprisoned in a labyrinthine palace full of dark secrets and is ultimately forced to run for his life. Although filmed three times, Thea von Harbou's mystery-suspense-fantasy is presented here in English for the first time since its original publication in 1918.

This city of the future encompasses two worlds: that of the hedonistic ruling class and that of a segregated subculture, toilers in a mechanized underworld who labor to provide the rich with their pleasures. When a charismatic leader arises, she seeks a savior to unite the disparate social orders. ""Between the brain that plans and the hands that build,"" she declares, ""there must be a mediator?the heart."" Thea von Harbou, creator of the screenplay for Fritz Lang's iconic 1927 film, wrote this novel to expand upon the movie's ideas and concepts. Vivid in description, rich in characterization and symbolism, the story draws upon ancient myths to form a compelling vision of the future. Noted science-fiction authority Forrest J. Ackerman hailed the book as ""a work of genius,"" and a century after its initial publication Metropolis continues to captivate readers.

In the literature of Science Fiction, there is no more an underappreciated and ignored piece of writing than Thea Von Harbou's magnificent Metropolis. The book, a novelization of the screenplay the author wrote for her husband Fritz Lang's film masterpiece of the same name, was a clever marketing move since the sales of one would drive the sales of the other. Yet the two existed as independent works of art. That proved true only too briefly. Something happened soon after the film premiered. The film studio made drastic and clumsy cuts that made the plot impossible to follow. Censors, exhibitors, and distributors further slashed the film to under 90 minutes from its original length of 153 minutes. Consequently, the film's reputation for unprecedented spectacle and imagination was forged by its transcendent and timeless visual beauty. And Van Harbou's novel was largely dismissed as an informational bridge between the film's original storyline and the multiple butchered versions.Unfortunately, that has been the way the book has been shelved for most of its publishing history. But the book has a life and a shelf of its own. If the film had never come to be made, this book would still offer a fascinating and emotionally powerful reading experience. We see the stark thematic contrasts between light and dark, God and Satan, the saintly Maria and the demonic Rotwang, the conflicts between starry dreams and manual labor, between steamy pump rooms and airplanes ferrying through bright high rise avenues. We also see romantic love and its mechanical counterfeits, a fictional aspect of the novel that has become eerily true in the age of technosexual robots.The novel has always stood on its own as a work of art, a work of romantic notions and hard experience, exploring the limits of thinking or clubbing our way out of life's most horrific challenges. The novel offers a possible resolution: The mediator between brain and muscle must be the Heart. Words that ring eternally true.

This remarkable novel, the basis for the world's greatest science-fiction movie, has long been a rare but ardently sought-after collector's item. It is an unforgettable vision of the 21st century and the awe-inspiring city of the future. Metropolis has been compared to such classics as George Orwell's 1984, H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, Samuel Butler's Erewhon, and Karel Capek's R.U.R. Science fiction writer and editor Forrest J Ackerman called it "a work of genius," noting, "The language of the novel is sometimes as thesauric as Shiel, as kaliedoscopic as Merritt, as bone-spare as Bradbury, as poetic as Poe, as macabre as Machen. . . . You will have an experience in reading that will last you all the rest of your life."