The Collection also includes the novel The White Dominican and short stories. Perhaps the most memorable figure in the story is the city of Prague itself, recognisable through its landmarks such as the Street of the Alchemists and the Castle. The Golem, though rarely seen, is central to the novel as a representative of the ghetto's own spirit and consciousness, brought to life by the suffering and misery that its inhabitants have endured over the centuries. When the jeweller Athanasius Pernath, suffering from broken dreams and amnesia, sees the Golem, he realises to his terror that the ghostly man of clay shares his own face. Supposedly a manifestation of all the suffering of the ghetto, it comes to life every 33 years in a room without a door. Lurking in its inhabitants’ subconscious is the Golem, a creature of rabbinical myth. He has been described as the 'most respected German language writer in the field of supernatural fiction'. In the 1970s, the German psychedelic artist Helmut Wenske completed a cycle of twelve paintings based on Gustav Meyrinks mystical classic, The Golem. An Austrian author, novelist, dramatist, translator, and banker, he is most famous for his novel The Golem. The red-headed prostitute Rosina the junk-dealer Aaron Wassertrum puppeteers street musicians and a deaf-mute silhouette artist. Gustav Meyrink (1868 - 1932) was the pen name of Gustav Meyer.

First published in serial form as Der Golem in the periodical Die weissen Blätter in 1913–14, The Golem is a haunting Gothic tale of stolen identity and persecution, set in a strange underworld peopled by fantastical characters.

The Golem by Gustav Meyrink