Preview of War with the Newts Summary:

Although he was one of the most versatile and erudite writers of the century, today Capek is remembered mostly for his scientific/philosophical/satirical plays and novels. Alongside H. G. Wells he is also recognized to be one of the most important practitioners of pre-war science fiction. His writings on social, scientific and philosophical topics are of great value, inasmuch as they deal with issues rife not only in prewar Europe, but in the technological world of today: the dangers of modern warfare, the culpability of scientists for the fruits of their research, the nature of technological might, the allure of totalitarianism, or the illusory nature of an industrial Utopia.

Crucial though they are both to his fiction and nonfiction, these concerns arise from his quest for a narrative embodiment to an even more central theme: a moral definition of an individual and his role in a democratic...