Metropolis

This classic science fiction masterpiece, which inspired the 1927 film, one of the actual icons of the silent cinema, is an allegory, a bleak epic of a future time when men will toil far below the city of their masters, who live in luxury in a gleaming, dazzling paradise far above the surface. Freder, the son of Joh Frederson, the ruler of Metropolis, embarks ona journey to the Worker's City below the surface of his idyllic world, there meeting the virginal prophetess Maria, who preaches patience to the pre-revolutionary mass of downtrodden workers. The evil scientist Rotwang steals her likeness for his robot, and together with the ruler Joh Frederson, plot to sabotage to coming rebellion. Will their plans succeed? An astounding parable every bit as relevant now as when it was first penned, Metropolis is a novel unlike anything you have ever read before.