The Golem

Gustav MeyrinkProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 469K words
Chapters: 47

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Der Golem by Gustav MeyrinkAuthor: Meyrink, Gustav, 1868-1932,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Mar 16, 2016

Editor's review

Der Golem is a novel by Gustav Meyrink, published in 1915; the German original is distributed free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Set in the Jewish ghetto of Prague, it follows a narrator who is mistaken for someone from the past and is gradually drawn into mysterious events surrounding the legendary clay figure of the Golem. Meyrink interweaves dreams, dislocated identity, occult symbolism, and urban space in a dense, opaque style; the book is often cited in the German-language fantasy tradition and in the German literature of Prague. Readers familiar with Kafka, Rilke, and other Prague German writers will find here a more mystical point of reference; for those studying fantasy and psychological themes in early twentieth-century German literature, it also has documentary value. A caveat: this is a novel of atmosphere and symbol rather than plot momentum; there is no need to chase causality, and it rewards slow reading in a quiet setting, with attention to the narrator's unstable perspective and the recurring dream structures. The Project Gutenberg edition is the German original in electronic text, suitable as a base text for reading in the original or for translation comparison.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in German-language fantasy and Prague literature
Advanced learners of German who wish to read early twentieth-century originals
Literary enthusiasts studying mysticism and literary symbolism
Readers who enjoy a Kafkaesque atmosphere and do not mind an opaque plot

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast-paced fantasy with a strong plot
Those with weak German who cannot yet read a long work in the original
General readers with no interest in religious or occult symbolism

Reading tips

Start by learning the basic background of the Prague Jewish ghetto and the Golem legend before entering the text.
Proceed chapter by chapter, and after each chapter review whether the narrator's identity has shifted.
Mark dense symbolic passages first, and return to sort them out after reading the whole.
Read alongside Kafka's short stories to compare different treatments of the same urban space.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in English or German?

The Project Gutenberg edition is listed as German and contains Meyrink's German original, not an English translation. For an English version, look for other editions. German learners can use it as original reading material, but need a certain vocabulary and the ability to handle long sentences.

Can I understand it without background knowledge?

You can read it, but understanding will suffer. The novel relies heavily on the Golem legend, Jewish mysticism, and the memory of Prague; without background, one may see only scattered dreams. Reading a brief introduction to the Golem legend and Meyrink's life first will make the experience much smoother.

How should I read this e-book?

Project Gutenberg provides a plain-text electronic edition, suitable for e-readers or tablets, with a dictionary for looking up words. Because the text is symbolically dense, use reading software that allows annotation, so you can mark recurring images and characters and review them together afterward.

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About the author

Gustav Meyrink Author · Austrian · 1868–1932

Gustav Meyrink (1868–1932) was an Austrian writer whose real name was Gustav Meyer, “Meyrink” being a pen name. Born in Vienna and long resident in Prague, he died in Starnberg in 1932. His best-known novel, Der Golem (1915), draws on legends of the Prague Jewish ghetto and is pervaded by mysticism and the supernatural. The library also holds Das grüne Gesicht, Fledermäuse: Sieben Geschichten, and Der violette Tod, und andere Novellen—four works in all—most of which deal with the grotesque, the mystical, and the supernatural. Public information is limited, and accounts of his life are often unreliable; readers should consult dependable sources. Understanding of him and his work should chiefly come from these works themselves, with their distinctive atmosphere and exploration of the darker recesses of the psyche.