Meyrink’s novel is much more subtle, complex and obscure. Although built on the Loew legend , which is overtly quoted by one of the book’s characters, in Meyrink’s version the Golem’s nature is less grotesque and more elusive. The creature is a kind of ghost who appears every 33 years in the ghetto, now dwelling in a room without doors ,now haunting the streets, sometimes quite recognizable – to the point of terrifying the ghetto inhabitants- sometimes nondescript, utterly anonymous, almost featureless or , even worse, showing himself as the doppelganger of the human being who has the misfortune to meet him.

The novel’s hero is Athanasius Pernath, a gem engraver, living in the Prague ghetto around 1890, surrounded by a number of odd neighbours: the evil junk dealer Aaron Wassertrum, the doomed student Charousek, the friendly Hillel, whose daughter Miriam will become Pernath’s love dream, the adulterer Angelina, to whom Pernath feels strangely attracted too, and the lascivious Rosina, the ghetto’s young prostitute.

The characters’ personal stories are entwined in a tangled plot, sometimes difficult to follow even for the smartest readers, which will lead to Pernath’s unjust accusation of a murder he never committed , his long imprisonment and his final restitution to a ghetto deeply transformed and from which all of Parneth’s acquaintances have disappeared one after another.

Meyrink’s expressionist writing style is fascinating in spite of – or because of – the fragmentary nature of the narrative. The story, rather than flowing smoothly in a strict sequence, is constituted by a number of powerful, intense scenes often oddly disconnected. But every event, either trivial or pivotal, is engulfed by the oppressive, eerie atmosphere of the ancient ghetto, a place of both physical and spiritual darkness.. And the wording is so precise and perfect that I’m sure is to be credited not only to the author’s ability but also to the excellent English translation by Mike Mitchell.

If you are an enthusiast of dark fiction and you missed this classical novel so far it’s high time to read it: you’ll find it weird, engrossing, subtly and deliciously disturbing.

Finally, since every nice book is a work of love, praise to Tartarus Press for the excellent production: clear printing on high quality paper, spellbinding black-and-white lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag, excellent binding. In other words a beautiful volume meant to last for ever.

Mario Guslandi was born and raised in Milan, Italy, where he’s currently living. He became addicted to horror and supernatural fiction more than twenty years ago, after accidentally reading a reprint anthology of stories by MR James, JS Le Fanu, HP Lovecraft and A Machen. Since then his collection of horror books has expanded to the point of requiring continuous addictions of new shelves to his library, in order to avoid the collapse of the whole structure. Most likely the only Italian who regularly reads (and reviews) dark fiction in English, he’s always tempted to hide his true identity under feigned English or american pen-names, just for the fun of it, but then he keeps forgetting to do that.

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.