Title Announcement

METROPOLIS by Thea Von Harbou : The 100th Anniversary Edition

We are delighted to announce that we will be publishing a 100th Anniversary Edition of Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou.

Metropolis was published in 1925 by August Scherl in Germany and first published in English in 1927. Harbou and her husband Fritz Lang used the novel as a treatment for the German expressionist masterpiece Metropolis on which they collaborated in 1927.

The visual legacy of the film in popular culture is beyond question. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential movies ever made and had a profound influence on other science fiction masterpieces, notably Ridley Scott's Blade Runner as well as Star Wars. The set design and shot composition can also be seen clearly in films like Batman (Both Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan's versions) Terry Gilliam's Brazil and The Matrix (1999).

Set in 2026, Metropolis is a futuristic city with severe socio-economic divisions, the ruling class live above ground in luxury and the working class lives below ground and operates the machines which run the city. Freder is the son of a powerful city master, Maria is a working class girl who advocates for systematic change, these two fall in love. However Freder's father has different ideas for his city and enlists the help of the Frankensteinian occult scientist 'Rotwang' who will create a beautiful monster all of his own in Maria's image...

''This book is not of today or of the future.

It tells of no place

It serves no cause, party or class.

It has a moral which grows on the pillar of understanding:

The mediator between brain and muscle must be the Heart"

-T. v. H.

The novel itself was considered a remarkable piece of dystopian, expressionist literature and Contemporary reviews compared Harbou's work to that of Karel Capek and the early fantastic romances of H G Wells.

This 100th Anniversary edition of Metropolis will be our first wholly

letterpress-printed novel and will be illustrated in Lino-cuts by

Vladimir Zimakov and Elijah John.

The artists will each portray the juxtaposed elements of city, the world above and the world below, the struggle between love and power, good and evil will translate into a book rich in imagery drawing on stylistic elements from both the novel and film.

Metropolis is scheduled for publication Late 2025, pre-orders will open around October 2025 and will be available in three states.

Another newsletter is to follow shortly with pre-order dates on our next title

Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman

Best Wishes

Victoria