Metropolis

Thea von Harbou's *Metropolis* (1925) is a visionary dystopian novel set in a vertically divided future city, where a privileged ruling class inhabits luminous towers while subterranean workers sustain its technological splendor. Blending social allegory, melodrama, biblical symbolism, Gothic imagery, and speculative machinery, the book follows Freder, the city's heir, and Maria, a worker-prophet ...