After the publication of War with the Newts, when Hitler's campaign of political and military intimidation continued unopposed, it became painfully clear that Capek's warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

Thomas Mann's daughter, Erika, consoled the author in his distress: "Your story of those sly, clever creatures which were first trained by man for all sorts of uses, and which finally, turning into a mob without soul or morals but with dangerous technical skill, plunge the world into ruin, this story is so contemporary and exciting, so comical and entertaining, that it wins friends everywhere." More than six decades later, it continues to do so.

A modern and modernist classic almost from day one, War with the Newts was daring and eclectic enough to ignite a debate about which genre or literary tradition it mined the most. Since the author populated this roller-coaster adventure with sapient...