Krakatit

Krakatit by Karel Čapek (1924)

Karel Čapek's Krakatit opens with the chemist and engineer Prokop wandering feverish and dazed through a foggy Prague night, having just been caught in a mysterious explosion in his laboratory shed at Hybsmonka caused by a small quantity of a new explosive he has synthesized. He collapses and is recognized on the embankment by a former classmate, George Thomas, who takes him home and, through Prokop's delirious ramblings, learns fragments about the substance — which Prokop names "Krakatit" — and about its terrifying, inexplicable power. Thomas writes down details Prokop mutters in his fever, including formulae, before leaving him alone to go to his father's in Tynice, ostensibly to raise money. Before departing, Thomas is visited by a veiled young woman who begs that someone stop him from a rash act (implicitly suicide over debts); the still-feverish Prokop volunteers to carry a sealed package of money and a letter from her to Thomas at Tynice, partly out of a sudden infatuation with her. Traveling in a delirious state, Prokop reaches Tynice, only to find Thomas is not there — he collapses at the door of Thomas's father, an elderly country doctor, and is diagnosed with meningitis and blood poisoning from his wounded hand. He is nursed for three weeks by the doctor and his daughter Annie, slowly recovering, though left with periods of confused memory. During his convalescence at the doctor's house, an idyllic domestic life unfolds — chess games, garden chores, evenings by the lamp — and Prokop and Annie grow close, culminating in a night of confessions and a first kiss. The next morning, while wrapping water lilies in old newspaper, Prokop notices a printed personal advertisement: "Krakatit! Will Eng. P. send his address? Carson, Poste Restante." This jolts his memory fully back — he recalls the true sequence of the explosion, hiding the sealed package for the veiled woman, and his forgotten obligation. Reading the letter inside the package, he learns the woman (signed "L.") sent the money to save her sister from Thomas's exploitative hold over her, and that she is not romantically involved with Thomas. Overwhelmed by relief and a growing passion for this stranger, Prokop abruptly abandons Annie and the doctor, promising a quick return, and rushes back to Prague to find Thomas. In Prague he discovers Thomas has vanished, deeply in debt and entangled in shady dealings, having sold or revealed knowledge of Krakatit to unknown parties. Searching Thomas's abandoned apartment, Prokop reads through his correspondence, uncovering both criminal financial schemes and evidence of an affair that produced the pleading letters from "M." (the veiled woman's sister). Prokop then rushes to his own looted laboratory shed, finding all his equipment, notes, and remaining Krakatit stolen. There he meets a man calling himself Carson, representing a foreign power (later revealed to be from a militarized factory complex called Balttin), who reveals that Thomas sold samples and the formula abroad, that the explosive has caused fatal accidents in testing, and that it inexplicably detonates in sympathy with mysterious encrypted wireless transmissions broadcast every Tuesday and Friday night — implying some hidden international organization is signaling through disturbances Krakatit alone can detect and answer. Carson pressures Prokop to sell the secret for a fortune, gets him extravagantly drunk, and the next day Prokop discovers a second, more official "Carson" — Sir Reginald Carson of the International Wireless Corporation — making a rival claim, both men vanishing when police are summoned. Determined to find Thomas and the veiled woman, and having failed through newspaper advertisements, detective agencies, and bank inquiries, Prokop travels to the heavily fortified Balttin munitions works, hoping to negotiate for information. There he is welcomed with strange ceremony by the original "Carson," introduced to the crippled, aristocratic Prince Hagen who nominally rules the estate, and to the Prince's proud, athletic daughter, Princess Wilhelmina ("Willy"). Prokop finds himself effectively confined within the estate's fenced, guarded, and booby-trapped grounds, unable to obtain a pass to leave despite being treated as an honored guest, given a fully equipped private laboratory stocked with his own reconstructed research notes, and fitted for new clothes without his consent. Frustrated by his captivity, he tries repeatedly to breach the perimeter, is repelled or humiliated each time by guards, and finally erupts in a violent confrontation — assaulting sentries, seizing a rifle, breaking a soldier's collarbone, and throwing stones at guards from the old fortifications — triggering an armed search of the grounds by soldiers and cavalry through the night.

By Karel Čapek · First published 1924 · Genre: Science Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Literary Fiction · 54 chapters · 122,889 words

First lines

With the evening the fog of the cold, damp day grew thicker. You felt as if you were making your way through some thin, moist substance which closed behind you again for good. You wished you were at home. At home by your lamp in a box of four walls. Never before had you felt so forsaken.

What this Textopian page supports

Krakatit is listed on Textopian as a novel by Karel Čapek, dated 1924 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

science fiction · invention · inventor protagonist · explosive device · technology · moral responsibility · power dynamics · danger · scientific ethics · adventure · thriller · dystopian

Contents

More by Karel Čapek