CAPEK, KAREL (189o-1938), Czech dramatist and novel ist, born at Male Svatonvice, in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), is perhaps best known as the author of the successful play R.U.R. (1920; Eng. trans. 1923), in which he satirizes the mechanical tendencies of modern civilization, and The Life of the Insects (192I ; Eng. trans. 1923), a spectacular play written in collabo ration with his brother Josef, and satirizing various phases of modern society. He also attracted much attention with the Mak ropulos Affair (1922), a play dealing with longevity. Of his fiction the best is contained in Painful Tales, a collection of short stories which deserve comparison with Maupassant, and in his two novels, The Manufacture of the Absolute (1923), and Krakatit (1924, Eng. trans. 1925). He wrote a brilliant series of feuilletons, Letters from England (1924; Eng. trans. 1925), Letters from Italy and Concerning the Nearest Things (1926).