R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), credited to Karel Čapek, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek. (Translated by Paul Selver.) Read in English by a full cast. Helena Glory, as the daughter of a major industrial power's president, is a woman on a mission. She faces the island factory of Rossum's Universal Robots, the world's leading company in robotic engineering. She is convinced that these new creations called robots they make are deserving of rights like humans do. Everyone else is convinced robots are nothing more than tools for human use. Is it so, or is a robot rebellion becoming a more likely prospect as the robots start to seem more intelligent than first thought? First performed in English in 1922, R.U.R. is most notable for being the play that introduced the word "robot" into the English language and one of the popular early examples of the science fiction genre onstage. (Mary Kay) Cast List! Narrator: John Trevithick Helena Glory / Robot Helena: Sarah Terry Harry Domin / Primus: ToddHW Dr. Gall: Barry Streifert Mr. Fabry: James Callaghan Dr. Hallemeier / Consul Busman: SteveToner Mr. Alquist: Beth Thomas Nana: KHand Radius: T. Layne Sulla / First Robot: Tina Nuzzi Marius / Fourth Robot: Rosslyn Carlyle A Servant: Etel Buss Second Robot / Third Robot: Kitty Kay / Mary Kay

Recording facts

• Recording title: R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)
• Author credits: Karel Čapek
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 4
• Listed recording duration: 1:47:25

Catalogue topics

• sci-fi
• science fiction
• science
• apocalypse
• love story
• machines
• rebellion
• adam and eve

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface and Act 1 — 37:56
2. 01 - Act 2 — 32:08
3. 02 - Act 3 — 22:34
4. 03 - Epilogue — 14:47

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.