Leyburn, UK; Tartarus Press; 2004. Limited hardcover edition. The Golem is Gustav Meyrink’s masterly 1915 retelling of the legend of the blasphemous creation of an artificial man by Rabbi Loew in the Prague ghetto of the sixteenth century. But Meyrink’s novel is much more than a variation on the Frankenstein or sorcerer’s apprentice theme. It is also an exploration of personal identity and the horror inherent in the search for self-knowledge. In this brooding, atmospheric story, the monster terrorising the streets of Prague is inextricably bound up with the psyche of the people who live there. This Tartarus edition includes a new Introduction by the translator, Mike Mitchell, and, from the first edition, eight lithographs by Hugo Steiner-Prag, augmented by an additional seventeen from the artist’s later portfolio ‘The Golem: Prague Fantasies’ Cover illustration by Joachim Seinfeld "A gorgeous new translation . . . a frighteningly and frankly devilishly skilful description of the Prague ghetto and the creation by Rabbi Loew of an artificial man. . . published by the Tartarus Press and is absolutely beautiful." - Ian McMillan, The Verb, BBC Radio 3 "Here is someone who has something to say, someone who has the courage to be himself. And nothing is more necessary than this courage." - Hermann Hesse "Gustav Meyrink uses this legend . . . in a dream- like setting on the Other Side of the Mirror and he has invested it with a horror so palpable that it has remained in my memory all these years." - Jorge Luis Borges "What holds us today is Meyrink’s vision of Prague, as precise and fantastic at once as Dickens’s London or Dostoevsky’s St Petersburg." - Times Literary Supplement. The Golem is a sewn hardback of 253+xvi pages. Limited to 300 copies. Fine in fine dj. OUT OF PRINT FROM THE PUBLISHER. 1 COPY AVAILABLE. |