Karel Čapek was a brilliant Czech writer, the first publisher of the word “robot”, whose work stays relevant even today.
Writing an introduction to an article about Karel Čapek doesn’t come easy to me. How to describe a person, a legend more like nowadays, who was involved in so many aspects of the Czech society? I will just spit it out fast: Karel Čapek was a talented multi-genre writer, journalist, translator, Nobel prize nominee, theatre play director, dramaturge, photographer, friend of politicians and freemason.
Table of Contents
Life of Karel Čapek
Childhood
Karel Antonín Čapek was born on January 9, 1890 in Malé Svatoňovice (Bohemia, Austria-Hungary), as the youngest of three children (his oldest sister Helena was a writer and his brother Josef a writer and a painter). Soon after his birth, his parents moved the family to Úpice and he spent also part of his childhood in Hronov, in his grandfather’s mill. The Čapek family was well-off (Karel’s father was a medical doctor) and could afford not only a good education for their children and studies abroad. Čapek’s academic title was doctor of philosophy. (picture from the Municipal Library of Žernov)
Adulthood and Prosecution
Since early adulthood, Čapek suffered Bekhterev’s disease and avoided being drafted into the Austrian army and didn’t have to fight in the WWI. After a short career in education, he started a new career in journalism. In his 30s, he became a dramaturge and play director of the Vinohrady Theatre and also the president of the Czechoslovak branch of PEN International.
Both him and his brother established the society of Friday Men (Pátečníci in Czech), a group of intellectuals and politicians meeting every Friday in the brother’s villa. Other members included the 1st Czechoslovak president T. G. Masaryk, 2nd Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, journalist Ferdinand Peroutka, writer Karel Poláček and many more. As a well off man with high standing in Prague’s society in the 1920s, it’s not too surprising that he was also a freemason. Karel Čapek was a member of the lodge called Národ (Nation), although according to Jana Čechurová (Karel Čapek’s Memorial), it was more of a time period fashion statement that was rather short lived. Read more in Freemasons in Czech Republic.
In 1935, he married his long-term girlfriend and actress Olga Scheinpflugová, whom he had met in the Vinohrady Theatre. Čapek was never afraid to voice his opinions, he criticized both communism and capitalism, warned against raising fascism and was a strong advocate for Czechoslovak unity which made him a target of the raising German forces. After president Masaryk passed away in 1937 and president Beneš resigned in 1938, Čapek became the most visible target of a smear campaign of pro-German fascists which included phone and mail threats and attacks on his house by both Czech and German Nazis. The 1938 Munich Agreement shattered his world and brought him down mentally, he wrote:
I feel like I shouldn’t be here anymore, I would be a ridiculous piece, my world has died because I believed in commitment, in honoring contracts and such things. I think I could not navigate this crowd…
His home was struck by a flood in August of 1938. He began renovations immediately which exhausted him physically. Čapek recovered from the initial flu temporarily only to be struck down by a pneumonia which he eventually succumbed to on the 25th of December of 1938 at only 49 years of age and shortly before the Gestapo could arrest him as planned. Čapek’s passing was a sad ending to the prospering First Czechoslovak Republic.
His wife suffered persecution (she died as a result of a heart weakness suffered as a result of a theatre play during which the children in the audience behaved very nasty, screaming and throwing things at her). Josef died in the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen shortly before the end of WWII. His sister Helena lived until 1961 and wrote books of memories of her brothers.
Work of Karel Čapek
Thanks to his talent and education, Čapek had an impressive vocabulary estimated at 70.000 words (F. Čermák a kol., Slovník Karla Čapka, 2007). His style was unique, he combined formal as well as colloquial terms that appealed to readers of several generations and the language of his works is very well understandable and relatable even today.
… And also I have to praise you, Czech language, language most difficult of all, most rich on all meanings and tones, most perfect, perceptive, lilting of all tongues I know or ever heard. I would like to be able to write everything you’re able to express; I would like to use at least once all the beautiful, definite, living words that are in you …
– Karel Čapek
A repeating topic of his work is the rise of fascism and nazism and threats to the First Czechoslovak Republic. He often focuses on the internal life of individuals as well as utopic societies. Besides of dozens of proses, stories and theatre plays, Čapek wrote countless columns for several newspapers.
Čapek was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature seven times between 1932 and 1938. According to some, the reason why he was never awarded the prize were his anti-fascist texts that irritated Germany.
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Theatre plays
Čapek wrote 8 plays, the most impactful being none other than R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots, Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti in Czech). In this work he published the word “robot” for the first time. You can read more about it in the article Czech word “Robot” and Its History but for now, let’s at least say that the author of the word is his brother Josef. In Macropulos Affair (Věc Makropulos), the main character reveals the downside to an eternal life (this play was transformed into an opera by Leoš Janáček) and The White Disease (Bílá nemoc) was one of the causes for his prosecution by Nazis (ones of the works in which he warned against the rise of fascism, nazism and dictatorship in general).
Prose
Čapek’s is often praised for almost predicting future events in his work and staying relevant even for a today’s reader. This is probably due to the fact that history tends to repeat itself and whilst Čapek warned against the dangers of the political situation of his period, the reader can see similar tendencies in the current political situation. His War with the Newts (Válka s mloky) is often mentioned in this respect. In this novel, a new species of intelligent newts is discovered. Some people fight for their integration into human society, giving them increasingly more rights whilst suppressing the humans and silencing those who warn against favoring the new species. As the newts slowly take over the living space of the humans, Czech people are especially calm as these newts cannot live in fresh water. However, at the end of the book, a news appears in the river Vltava in Prague.
In The Absolute at Large (Továrna na absolutno in Czech, literally translated as The Factory for the Absolute), a newly invented reactors produce cheap energy but it’s by-product is the absolute – a kind of radiation which permeates all and turns people into religious fanatics who want to build more reactors. The world market collapses and a world war starts. This war has many illogical events and ends in total exhaustion of resources. People finally try to destroy the reactors, however, the war does not have a clear winner.
The apocalyptic theme appears also in Krakatit. The main character’s invention of new explosive leads to complete annihilation of his town.
The author also used real events in some of his work. Hordubal tells the tale of a man who comes home to Transcarpathia after spending eight years in America, only to be murdered by his wife and her lover.
Karel Čapek wrote also several books for children. The most famous one being Dashenka or The Life of a Puppy (Dášeňka čili život štěněte) in which he tells the anecdotes of his life with a wire fox terrier puppy and several dog-related fairy-tales. I Had a Dog and a Cat (Měl jsem psa a kočku) is another collection of fun stories from Čapek’s life with his pets.
To mention another one, (Devatero pohádek a ještě jedna od Josefa Čapka jako přívažek) is a collection of fairy-tales.
Feuilletons, short stories and travelogues
Čapek is also known for his witty feuilletons, short stories from different walks of like and his travelogues. A Gardener’s Year (Zahradníkův rok) is a collection of feuilletons about gardening, a big hobby of the author. This collection is a brilliant example of Čapek’s talent for language and writing as he manages to captivate the reader with text about something very usual and unexciting, so different from his sci-fi theater plays and apocalyptic novels.
Short Stories from One Pocket and Short Stories from the Other Pocket (Povídky z jedné kapsy, Povídky z druhé kapsy) are collection of detective stories depicting situations beyond common sense or human justice.
Čapek’s travelogues were first published in the newspaper Lidové noviny, later as books. He wrote the travelogues Letter from Spain, Italy, Letters from England, Letters from Holland and Travels in the North.
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Featured picture: Author: Unknown – Národní knihovna České republiky, Volné dílo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149901740
