It quickly became a bestseller, causing an anti-Semitic backlash during World War I. Lovecraft, “The Golem” was issued by the German Jewish publisher Kurt Wolff, who also promoted the writings of such Jewish writers as Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel, Else Lasker-Schüler and Karl Kraus.Īccording to some sources, Max Brod helped edit the manuscript during its serialization before it appeared in book form. Imbued with horror and eroticism that prefigure the work of American fantasy author H. The title character does not correspond to Jewish legends about the golem, but hovers in the background, symbolizing the suffering of ghetto dwellers.
His dream involves blending his own identity with that of an inhabitant of Prague’s miserable ghetto. The story begins with an unnamed man who falls asleep after reading a book about the Buddha. He studied esoteric religion, aspired to be a car salesman, and wrote anti-military satires, leading the journalist Karl Kraus to note Meyrink’s “predilection for Buddhism, combined with an aversion to the infantry.” Meyrink called himself a Wüstenhund, or desert dog - and “The Golem” is a shaggy dog story that cites religious lore with wild inaccuracy. Meyrink also had his detractors, such as Gershom Scholem.īorn Gustav Meyer in Vienna to Protestant parents, Meyrink led a wild life that included a jail sentence for dubious business practices. Fans of “The Golem” included Jewish novelists such as Arnold Zweig and Franz Kafka’s friend Max Brod.
So despite its venerable aura, the golem tale was still innovative when Meyrink embraced it. This year marks the centenary of the book publication of Gustav Meyrink’s serialized novel “Der Golem.” Until a 2006 episode of TV’s “The Simpsons,” where Bart Simpson stole a golem from Krusty the Clown, Meyrink’s was probably the most famous adaptation of the ancient Jewish legend in which a man of clay is brought to life by magic as a “sort of friendly Jewish Frankenstein,” as Germanist Cathy Gelbin stated in “The Golem Returns.” Although most Jewish readers associate the golem story with the 16th-century Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal of Prague, the legend that he created the Golem of Prague apparently dates only from the 19th century. Star Maker: The Golem legend was the inspiration for a trio of films including the 1920 version pictured above.
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