SOURCE: "The Luminous Depths," "The Lost Way," and "The Offended," in Karel Čapek, Columbia University Press, 1962, pp. 46-50; 51-61; 62-65.

In the following essay, Harkins traces Čapek's philosophical development through three collections, Zářivé hlubiny, Boži muka, and Trapné providky, which he renders as Luminous Depths, Wayside Crosses, and Painful Tales, respectively.

The neo-classical period had been only a passing phase in the work of the Brothers Čapek, though the formal discipline it provided is felt in several new stories they published in 1911 and 1912. These, along with the two Italian tales, were subsequently collected in the volume published in 1916 as The Luminous Depths.¹ Vitalism is the main force animating these tales, and the cynicism of the earlier pieces has disappeared almost completely. But the new faith in life brings a fresh skepticism: granting that life is self-valuable, is man capable of comprehending its innate worth? Will human...