Skip to main content

Meyrink, Gustav

Index: Guayaquil, El informe de Brodie, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 1066. El Golem, El libro de los seres imaginarios, OCC,Obras completas en colaboración. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1979. 638. Gustav Meyrink, BP,Biblioteca personal. Madrid: Alianza, 1988. 79. Letras Alemanas: Una exposición afligente, BS,Borges en Sur 1931-1980. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1999. 155. Sylvina Bullrich Palenque: La redoma del primer ángel, BS,Borges en Sur 1931-1980. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1999. 267. La cábala, SN,Siete noches. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1982. 137-39. 16 de octubre de 1936, Reseñas, Der Engel Vom Westlichen Fenster, de Gustav Meyrink, TC,Textos cautivos. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1986. 35, 36. 16 de abril de 1937, Biografía sintética, TC,Textos cautivos. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1986. 120. 29 de abril de 1938, Biografía sintética, Gustav Meyrink, TC,Textos cautivos. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1986. 230-31. 2 de junio de 1939, Ensayo, Cuando la ficción vive en la ficción, TC,Textos cautivos. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1986. 327. Los primeros 25 años de Davar, TR3,Textos recobrados 1956-1986. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2004. 289.
Type
N

Austrian writer, pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, 1868-1932, author of Der Golem

Fishburn and Hughes: "The pseudonym of G. Meyer, an Austrian novelist who lived for many years in Prague and converted from Protestantism to Buddhism. Meyrink's interest in occultism led him to study the Cabbala, freemasonry, yoga and alchemy and to experiment with hashish. His best-known novel is Der Golem (1916), 'golem' being the Hebrew for embryo, or-anything incomplete; it is based on the medieval Jewish belief that it was possible to infuse life into a clay or wooden figure by means of a combination of letters of any one of God's names. The most famous version of this legend became that of the sixteenth-century rabbi from Prague Judah Loew, who is said to have created a golem to serve in the synagogue. Every evening the rabbi removed a vital letter of the combination, but on one occasion he forgot and the golem took over in a frenzy. This masterpiece of fantasy (of which two films were made by Paul Wegener) combines this strange legend with experiences of Meyrink's own life in Prague. It contains metaphysical themes from which Borges drew inspiration for many of his stories. Borges also wrote a long poem 'El Golem', which he considered among his best (Sel. Poems 123). In Meyrink's novel the golem can be seen to symbolise the individual who has become the automaton of modern society, instilled with a soul that is alien to himself. There are certain autobiographical links between the narrator of 'Guayaquil' and Borges. In his 'Autobiographical Essay' Borges relates that when he first learnt German he read Meyrink's book in the original and later, in 1960, discussed the legend with the Jewish scholar Gershom Scholem in Jerusalem (Aleph 134 (216)). On the same theme he has written: '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!'" (129)