Karel Čapek

1890 – 1938

Karel Čapek had already achieved world recognition right at the beginning of his literary work. Karel was not only an excellent story teller, but an expert on human nature, as well. For him, an individual was part of a higher entirety, a person inserted into society. The legacy of the world, and especially the legacy of our own nation in the middle of Europe, was always deeply immersed in his heart. To this he dedicated the majority of his journalistic work. He was a prosaist, a dramatist, a publicist, but, in particular with his translations, he proved he was also a poet. He was, of course, a great painter and photographer, as well. He was a person with a wide outlook and deep knowledge, but also with a sense for man and his problems. (Aleš Fetters)

Karel Čapek By date

1890 1890 - 9.1. born in Malé Svatoňovice
1895 - 1901 1895 - 1901 - attends a common school and the first grade of the bourgeois school in Úpice
1901 - 1905 1901 - 1905 - studies at a grammar school in Hradec Králové
1905 - 1907 1905 - 1907 - transfers to the First Czech Grammar School in Brno
1907 - 1909 1907 - 1909 - after moving all the family from Úpice to Prague, studies at the Academic Grammar School in Prague
1909 - 1915 1909 - 1915 - studies Philosophy, Aesthetics, History of Fine Art, German Studies, English-American Studies and Czech Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University. In November 1915, he receives a Doctorate of Philosophy.
1917 1917 - acts as a private in-home teacher of Prokop Lažanský at the castle in Chyše by Žlutice. In October he starts as an editor of the National Journal (Národní listy)
1920 1920 - meets actor Olga Scheinpflug
1921 - 1938 1921 - 1938 - is an editor in the Prague editorial office of People’s News (Lidové noviny)
1921 - 1923 1921 - 1923 - is a script editor and director at the Royal Vineyards City Theater
1922 1922 - is introduced for the first time to president T. G. Masaryk, with whom he was bound by a lifelong friendship
1923 1923 - trip to Italy
1924 1924 - trip to England
1925 1925 - founds the Czechoslovakian branch of an international writers organization called Penclub
1929 1929 - trip to Spain
1931 1931 - trip to the Netherlands
1935 1935 - 26. 8. wedding with Olga Scheinpflug. The newlyweds receive a house in Stará Huť near the municipality Dobříš – Strž from Václav Palivec for lifelong use.
1936 1936 - undertakes a trip around Scandinavia together with his wife. For the first time is nominated for a Nobel Peace Price in literature.
1937 1937 - attends the Penclub World Congress in Paris
1938 1938 - significantly participates in the Penclub World Congress organization in Prague. After the Munich conference, is forced to face a hateful press campaign against him. After liquidation of the house in Strž due to flood damage, he falls ill with influenza and pneumonia.
1938 1938 - 25.12. succumbs to severe pneumonia, died in Prague
1938 1938 - 29.12. buried in Vyšehrad

1890 1938

Selected artwork stories theatrical plays novels fairytales

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Full list of works

1916 Shining Depths (stories with Josef Čapek) This is a collection of stories that were already published in magazines before the war. The fundamental theme of the seven stories is love, often unhappy and complicated. However, typical themes of Karel Čapek’s later work also occur, such as fear of science and technology that have the ability not only to improve a human’s life, but also to take it away.

1917 God’s Torment It is a collection of thirteen stories set in philosophical harmony, whereby the author concentrated his attention on things seemingly beyond the realm of human understanding. In many instances, they are directly inspired by war events. The building principle of the ballads lies on the notion that everything is being directed towards some invisible, unknown or unsolved event: towards the origin of a mysterious track found in the snow, the destiny of a homeless girl, the character of a fugitive criminal or towards a strange past, and all of them are testimonies of the author’s deep compassion for people and for their mistakes.

1918 Krakonoš’s Garden (small prose with Josef Čapek) Krakonoš’s Garden is a region in the surrounding lower area (Podkrkonoší) of the Giant (Krokonoše) Mountains where the brothers spent their childhood and adolescent years. The work aspires to describe a healthy outlook on the unnaturalness of human beings and other things. The authors were inspired by the beautiful environment from their childhood – the surroundings of the Úpa River, and where they simultaneously learnt about factories with a working class, dirty laborer‘s quarters, vices and poverty. These two faces of the world influenced their future work.

1920 Robber This was Karel Čapek‘s first theatrical play. The humorous, cheerful, romantic, but also wistful play tells a story about a student who falls in love with young Mimi. This comedy, to a certain extent, is associated with the author’s stay in Paris (1911) and his homesickness. It is reminiscent of youth and freedom, his birthplace region and friends, the city of Hradec Králové and his love, Anna Nepeřená, from his study years at grammar school.

1921 R.U.R. ”R.U.R.“ is Čapek’s utopian drama where the world encountered the word ”robot“ for the first time. The central idea of the play is the destruction of human kind because of techniques that are too advanced and have gotten out of control. With a purpose of eliminating the need to work, people create artificial servants-robots who later revolt and wipe out the entire human race. Eventually a couple of these artificial creatures, initially unable to have any feelings, find love for one another and, with a blessing from the old inventor, become the new Adam and Eve.

1922 The Makropulos Subject The theme of the play is immortality. The incentive for its creation was the theory from Professor Mečnikov that aging is autointoxication of an organism. Čapek, through drama, looks into the souls of people who long for an unending life without any idea how unpredictable mythical immortality can be and, at the same time, he is able to perfectly unravel negative aspects of such a life.
1922 The Factory for the Absolute It is an anti-utopian novel that describes an unbelievable invention (a carburetor) that awakens a human spiritual peace and the necessity to carry out goodness. The novel deals with questions about dangers from technology that get out of control, dangers from many forms of fanaticism and also with questions about the human conscience. The humans are gradually trying to cleanse the world of the mysterious carburetors, however, the war doesn’t have an apparent winner.

1924 Krakatit The inventor Prokop develops a substance called ”krakatit“ – the most horrifying explosive in the world that can be set off remotely by electromagnetic waves. Not only does Prokop realize the possibilities of his invention, but others are also aware of it, and they are attempting to take the invention away from him. Prokop stands up against temptation and doesn’t divulge his formula. At the end, he witnesses a tragic explosion of a laboratory where an attempt to prepare the explosive is taking place. Prokop, delirious in fever, in the end meets a fairytale grandpa, God, and accepts his reconcilling legacy of goodness and a necessity to only create things that are helpful to human kind.
1924 English Epistles The book was created and based on the author’s two-month long stay in England in 1924. Čapek describes his impressions of the British metropolis, adds his own perceptions from his trip to Scotland and Wales and also brief portraits of English literetary giants. Čapek poignantly characterizes English national personality, points out cultural differences between the island empire and the old continent, and lastly he expresses his respect for British democratic traditions.

1928 Interviews with T. G. Masaryk ”Interviews with T. G. Masaryk“ is originally a three-part file which the author created and based on interviews with the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk during the years of 1925–1935. The result is an absolutely comprehensive picture of the president’s personality. It is an exceptionally valuable piece of artwork because it is a testimony of the president’s life and his overall political, religious and philosophical opinions.

1929 Stories from One Pocket, Stories from Another Pocket This collection is a simultaneous edition of two sets of philosophically harmonized crime stories with a humorous and warmhearted outlook on the world of everyday people during the period of the first republic. The author contemplates questions concerning rights and justice, good and evil and crime and punishment. The stories were drafted more or less for catch-up reading during little moments of relaxation and, besides the variety of criminological curiosities, they also contain sketches and reflections on the general problems of human existence.

1932 Ennead Fairytales and One More from Josef Čapek as an Addition The author, with a kind, caring humor and with the help of his fairytale stories, illustrates many phenomena of daily life and describes what happens in moments and in places that one rarely visits. The author explains to us many facts from the dog and cat empire and from the professions of a mailman, a robber and a waternymph. Most of his fairytales are related to a region of Čapek’s childhood.

1933 Dášeňka, in other words Life of a Puppy It is a book with stories about a small, naughty wirehaired fox terrier puppy that is mischievous not only to his mother Iris, but to his owner – the writer Karel Čapek, as well. For the puppy that can‘t sit for even a moment, there are also fairytales prepared for small dogs.
1933 Hordubal In this psychological work, Čapek was inspired by a true story. After eight years of living in America, Juraj Hordubal returns back home, where he finds out from his friends that his wife had been cheating on him with a farm worker. The love triangle ends with tragedy.

1934 Povětroň This story begins with a man being brought to a hospital unconscious after he sustained injury during an aircraft disaster. A clairvoyant, a nun and a poet step by step exchange places by his bed, while every one of them is trying to find out the reason which led the man to fly in such bad weather. Based on the exchanges, three equally probable stories develop while the truth stays hidden.
1934 An Ordinary Life This story is a confession of a dying man who decided to write his own autobiography, in other words a confession of ”an ordinary man“ because there are a plethora of biographies of exceptional people; however, almost nobody writes about an ordinary person. He believes that nothing special or extraordinary happened in his life. Everything seemed like it had been planned in advance...

1936 War with the Newts A famous anti-utopian sci-fi describes a race of intelligent newts that, at first, let themselves be used as a cheap workforce, but after some period of time, their race becomes overpopulated, and they begin to endanger human kind. Because newts can’t live inland, they gradually destroy the land and expand their sea territory. Yet people are still providing the newts with tools and weapons, regardless of knowing that the newts are planning their destruction.

1937 White Illness A white illness, a disease that only elderly people can become infected with and which causes white spots on the body, spreads around the world. The doctor Galén invented an effective cure against the disease; however, only if the governments pledge never to go to war again would he be willing to reveal it. The marshal becomes infected with the white illness and only then is he willing to end war conflicts. The marshal summons the doctor, but Galén, who is hurrying with the cure to the marshal’s palace, is killed by a fanatic crowd.

1938 Mother It is a drama that depicts a mother who lost her husband and almost all of her sons during the war. She forbids her youngest son from enlisting in order to prevent loosing him as well. Only when she hears on the radio that the enemy doesn’t have any remorse killing children does she change her mind. Then it is she herself who puts the weapon into her son’s hands and sends him to fight with the enemy.

1939 Life and Work of the Composer Foltýn It is the author’s last unfinished and post-mortem published novel – a fictional biography of Bedřich Foltýn (pseudonymously Beda Folten), an amateur composer and an obsessive music writer who considers himself to be a genius. He is obsessed with the idea of creating a magnificent piece of work, regardless of the fact that his abilities for doing so aren’t sufficient enough.

It is the corner between the Úpa and Metuje rivers, between Grandma’s Valley (Babiččino údolí) and the tranquil Jirásek Hronov basin. Wherever you climb up the hill, you can see Sněžka up in the north and Bor and Hejšovina in the east, the giant border stones of the country... Also weavers, spiritualists, live up there on those hills; there, along the rivers, it is one battlefield by another – Trutnov, Skalice, Náchod and then below, Sadová, with its slender memorials that speak of how many young people had fallen there. So, that is the region of tranquil and somehow poor fields, birch groves and a couple of majestic monuments: after Božena Němcová and Alois Jirásek . . . That corner of the foothills between the Úpa and Metuje rivers was the world of our childhood; one grandpa managed his farm above Grandma’s Valley (Babiččino údolí) and even used to know the mad Viktorka, and the second, Mister Father from Hronov’s Mill, he used to deliver nickels and loaves of bread from the Jirásek’s bakery to the scholar Alois in Hradec. Tranquil red sandstone hills covered by silver birch thickets and dark pine groves are rolling between the valleys of the rivers Metuje and Úpa; secluded places spread over the hills, where, in the mist of our childhood, the weaving looms of range historians, spiritualists and Balcarák area sectarians pounded from morning to night . . . (Karel Čapek

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Film Adaptations (0) display all

R.U.R.

Gibel sensatsii (R.U.R.) - SSSR, 1935
R.U.R.: Genesis – (apparently USA, 2016)

The most represented theatrical play of Karel Čapek is ”R.U.R.“ – immediately after its publication in 1920, the play received unprecedented success not only in former Czechoslovakia, but also abroad.

The Czechoslovakian debut took place on the 2nd of January, 1921 in Hradec Králové, where the production was introduced by the local amateur group Klicpera. The Prague premiere took place at the National Theater on January 25, 1921.

It is known that the word robot was created by Karel’s brother Josef – he derived the word from the word ”robota“ – ”robotovat“ (labor – to labor).

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