Gustav Meyrink
Der Golem
"Der Golem" by Gustav Meyrink is a Gothic novel written between 1907 and 1914. An anonymous narrator experiences a visionary dream in which he assumes the identity of Athanasius Pernath, a jeweler living in Prague's ghetto. The Golem itself represents the collective spirit of the ghetto's suffering inhabitants. Reality constantly blurs as Pernath's mental stability is questioned—he cannot recall his childhood or a past breakdown. The reader must wonder whether any events actually occurred or exist only as dreams and hallucinations.