In fact, he drew the ire of the German nationalists towards the end of and just after the First World War, and at one point had to flee Prague and set up home for a while in Switzerland.Īccording to Mitchell, Meyrink’s love of the mystical and fantastical in his writing has led some academics to dismiss him, branding his stories “cheap horror”. He was constantly taking a pop at authorities in his stories, which he dressed up in fantastical dressings or as ghost stories. Meyrink also wrote short stories, which were hugely loved among the young literary crowd in Prague and other German-speaking nations, even as they enraged the authorities. The Green Face is ostensibly set in Amsterdam, but is almost indistinguishable from Meyrink’s descriptions of Prague in his other novels, and Walpurgisnacht in particular highlights the writer’s penchant for satire and political comment – which often got him into trouble. The Jewish ghetto was just one part of the city of Prague that left a mark on him and informed his writing. Meyrink was often mistaken for a Jew, perhaps because he had mined the old folk-tale of the Golem for his first book, though he wasn’t. There are obvious parallels in The Golem there, too, as dark shadows gather around Pernath and forces beyond his control move to affect his life. Meyrink started writing the novel in 1907 and it was published in 1914, just as war was breaking out in Europe. There are obvious parallels with Kafka’s stories of shadowy machinations working against the little man beyond his understanding, but there are also perhaps analogies with the way the Jews were treated in Europe at the time, as Pernath is shuttled from one place to another and becomes a hated, homeless figure. The Limehouse Golem is a Victorian melodrama with all the trimmings.How this Prague suburb went from sleazy stag dos to hipster paradise.
Miles Kington: The Kafkaesque world of the Literary Label Committee.Innocents incarcerated – the nightmare of wrongful imprisonment.
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