Harbou, Thea Von (1888-1954). Metropolis. London: The Readers Library, 1927.

12mo. Original gilt-decorated burgundy cloth (front hinge tender); dust jacket designed by Aubrey Hammond (spine and flap folds lightly toned, light wear near foot).

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, FIRST ISSUE, without mention of this title in list of Readers Library books on p.[7].

First published in 1926 in German to coincide with the release of Metropolis, Thea von Harbou’s novelization of the film appeared in advance of the premiere and represents the first book appearance of one of the most influential works of early science fiction cinema. Harbou’s text elaborates on the narrative she conceived with her husband and collaborator, Fritz Lang, depicting a futuristic city defined by stark divisions between the ruling elite and the oppressed workers who labor beneath it. As Clute and Nicholls observe, the film—often described as “the first SF epic of the cinema”—also shares much with “the cinema of the Gothic.” Though set amid “towering buildings and vast brooding machines,” the city of Metropolis retains “an underworld dark and medieval in atmosphere.” While the story itself may be “trite” and its politics “ludicrously simplistic,” these shortcomings, they argue, “cannot detract from the sheer visual power of the film.” Enormously expensive to produce and “not a financial success,” Metropolis nearly bankrupted the studio UFA, and the film was cut almost immediately after release; even modern restorations remain “half an hour shorter than the original” (Clute and Nicholls, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 1993, pp. 804-5). Anatomy of Wonder III, 2-123; Bleiler, Early Years 1040; Lewis, Utopian Literature p.198; Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy p.104.

This lot is located in Chicago.

Harbou, Thea Von (1888-1954). Metropolis. London: The Readers Library, 1927.