The Golem (novel)
The Golem is the title of a novel in twenty chapters of Gustav Meyrink. He first appeared in the years 1913 and 1914 as a serial novel in the magazine The white sheets; In 1915 he was published in book form.
Content
Early 20th century: The anonymous narrator of the story, to visit in Prague, have read before going to bed - Go in a book about the life of Gotama Buddha. He falls into a fitful doze, and slides into a dream world in which he lived through events again that have taken place in Prague's Jewish quarter more than thirty years ago.
In this state, he assumes the identity of Gemmenschneiders and Ausbesserers of antiques Pernath Athanasius, who lives at 1890/1891 in the Prague ghetto and gradually access to its own past, its interior, are obtained at the end of the encounter is with yourself.
In Pernaths apartment suddenly appears a gentleman who behaves as if he were at home there and neither greet nor decreases the hat. He pulls a folio with a cover made of metal out of his pocket. The Initial I at the beginning of the chapter " Ibbur " ( Seelenschwängerung ) must be restored. Pernath reads the mysterious Chapter I. Like a ghost, the visitors suddenly disappeared again. Soon Pernath suspects the mysterious client could the old mythical beast, the Golem, have been, where it is said that he was going to all thirty-three years in Prague. Rabbi Loew said to have created it in 1580 on the banks of the Vltava river for lost provisions of the Kabbalah of clay, because he wanted a mate who should protect the Jews.
From now on, gets the life of Gemmenschneiders out of joint. He is involved in numerous intrigues and haunted by hallucinations and delusions. Not only that he befallen strange things he can not understand. He is also involved in the vendetta, the medical student Charousek against Aaron Wasser- Flea, whose illegitimate son he is leading. He also learns the archivist know Hillel, who is always there when Pernath needs help and he falls in love with his daughter Miriam herself.
In a chamber of the neighboring house Pernath finds a trap door and gets into a barred " room with no access ," which he recognizes the descriptions as a dwelling of the Golem. A Tarockspiel captivate the attention, especially the first card, the Pagat. He can remember to have painted this card many years ago even. Suddenly, he believes himself to sit in the corner of the room opposite to see.
His encounters with the Golem, which occurs as a double of the people, culminating in the request and in the hope of obtaining a redeemed, immortal self.
Through a conspiracy of the laggard Aaron Wasser- he is suspected of murder, goes to prison, where he wastes away and all hope abandon, until he is released unexpectedly after six months and finds that the part of the ghetto in which he lived has been demolished. His friends of the past he vain. He finds a new place to live in the house with the " room without access," which does not exist according to statements of the local janitor. When a fire breaks out in the house, he then come down from the roof and thinks through a window Miriam and Hillel to discover. The rope breaks and he falls to the pavement.
When the narrator wakes up, he finds a confused hat with an embroidered name " Athanasius Pernath ". In his research he discovered traces of other dreamed in "reality". The conclusion, in which the narrator himself, ie his dreamed- I, met as double, lets him in the dark about the reality character of the experience.
Stylistic position
Gustav Meyrink's The Golem is regarded as a classic of fantastic literature. It is in the novel is not an adaptation of the Jewish Golem legend in the strict sense, but an impressionistic vision against the background of the legend that is the reader ultimately assumed to be known. The title character emerges in the novel itself does not; the extent to which the narrator himself in phases takes the shape of the Golem, remains open.
No filming
Contrary to some, tackling the persistent rumors, none of the three Golem films by Paul Wegener is a film adaptation of Meyrink 's novel, not even the most famous of them, the 1920 rotated together with Carl Boese film The Golem: How He Came into the world. Rather, these films deal with the Jewish Golem legend itself, just as the movie Le Golem by Julien Duvivier in the year 1936.
Audiobook
- The Golem. Read by Wolf Euba (2003, 8 CDs)
- The Golem. Read by David Nathan on audible (2009; 8:44 hours)
- The Golem. Read by "Hoax " on librivox - free, available online ( 9:02 hours)
Book
- Gustav Meyrink: The Golem. Vitalis -Verlag Prague edition, 2008. ISBN 978-3-89919-053-3