Meyrink's The Golem first appeared in 1913-14 in the periodical Die weissen Blätter, and was published in book form in Germany in 1915 where it sold over a quarter of a million copies before its first appearance in English in 1928. The golem, as an effigy, dates back to the Middle Ages, with most stories concerning a 16th century rabbi and the golem's power to protect him. A contemporary of Kafka, Vienna-born writer Gustav Meyrink was a pioneer in expressionistic writing, and is considered by many among the finest of 20th century supernatural writers. Near fine in an excellent dust jacket with some rubbing and wear.
Octavo, original stamped purple cloth, engraved frontispiece. issue (made up from British sheets).įirst American edition of the English translation of Meyrink's masterpiece of mysticism. McKnight Kauffer) with large chip to the upper spine panel affecting the title and a chip to the base of the spine panel affecting the publisher title lettering, lower third to front panel split from spine, lower half of front panel fold split, several other minor chip with the front panel largely complete. Ink stamp with previous owner's name, address and other number to front free end paper, corner tips slightly bruised and spine ends a bit rubbed, Vroman's of Pasadena period bookstore label affixed to rear paste down, a clean very good copy in a good dust art deco dust jacket (designed by E. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature II, pp. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1173. "Key work of German Expressionism." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-148. At the same time, the pending destruction of Prague (and all of Europe itself) is treated by Meyrink with a deep ambivalence, and his next novels all tend to present the apocalypse as an occult cleansing of the material world so that higher unions of the spirit can be achieved." - Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p.
It is, however, like most twentieth-century urban fantasies distinguished from its Gothic ancestors through a sense that the fall of the city will be a bad omen for its inhabitants, not a release. The phantasmagorical, threatened Prague of this novel - its wainscots haunted by a Golem who is more like a psychic fog than an actual entity, and the false polder of its ghetto withering under the baleful light of a new century - makes THE GOLEM into a pure urban fantasy: a tale whose setting, like some vast subterranean edifice, seems literally alive, organic, all-encompassing, Gothic. Meyrink's first novel "prefigures that disastrous climax to a century of growth and change. 5-288, inserted frontispiece with uncredited drawing of the Golem (this plate does not appear in the UK issue), original purple cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, top edge stained black, fore-edge untrimmed.
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