The Green Face [Paperback]

Gustav Meyrink (Author), Mike Mitchell (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1993

Meyrink's second, and most mystical, novel from 1916: this is the first time this Dedalus edition has been available in North America. Published in Germany to critical and commercial acclaim, it is set in Amsterdam, used as a symbol of European decadence: the city is ultimately destroyed. The Green Face has classic Meyrink features: * a mystical wedding * a galaxy of grotesque characters * the haunting atmosphere of the ghetto In an Amsterdam that very much resembles the Prague of The Golem, a stranger, Hauberisser, enters by chance a magician's shop. The name on the shop, he believes, is Chidher Green; inside, among several strange customers, he hears an old man, who says his name is Green, explain that, like the Wandering Jew, he has been on earth ""ever since the moon has been circling the heaven."" When Hauberisser catches sight of the old man's face, it makes him sick with horror, haunting him. The rest of the novel chronicles Hauberisser's quest for the elusive and horrible old man.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (December 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078180003X
• ISBN-13: 978-0781800037
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,066,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A distinct vision of the soul's progress., June 25, 2000

By 

A. C. Walter "awalter" (Lynnwood, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green Face (Paperback)

Gustav Meyrink's "The Green Face" is an exhilarating vision of apocalypse. First published in 1916, the novel sets its action in the near future of post-war Amsterdam, a city brimming with displaced people and with a stifling atmosphere of unrelenting tension. At this critical time appears an enigmatic being named Chidher Green, the mythical Wandering Jew.

Meyrink reworks and amplifies the legend of the Wandering Jew (a being fated to walk the earth from the days of Christ till the end of time), portraying his Chidher Green as a harbinger of cataclysmic change both for the novel's protagonist, Fortunatus Hauberrisser, and for Amsterdam in general. The story begins with Hauberrisser encountering Chidher Green in a magic shop one day, oblivious to his identity. Soon after, Hauberrisser finds a peculiar chain of old memories and chance encounters erupting around him. As in a house of mirrors, this one image of a bronze-green face suddenly appears around every corner. The face becomes a sort of totem of meditative contemplation (drawing associations with Zen Buddhism). Finally, Hauberrisser and his companions reach a consensus over the phenomenon's significance: If one were to attain a spiritual state in which this face manifested internally, a unique form of transcendence would then be achieved.

When all is said and done, Fortunatus Hauberrisser does not prove to be one of Meyrink's most memorable characters. However, it is also true that his protagonists are often intended as ciphers. If this novel is Meyrink's "Book of Revelation," then Hauberrisser is certainly his Saint John, valuable largely for his role as privileged witness to the spirit world's mysteries.

Also, the route Hauberrisser must take through the story is Meyrink's familiar path of enlightenment-a moment of sudden spiritual awareness followed by a period of isolation, which at last leads to promises of a mystical marriage. Though this path echoes through Meyrink's other work, it would be a mistake to imagine he is simply repeating himself or relying on a formula here. Meyrink has a very distinct vision of the soul's progress; and it is this intense conviction that again manifests so clearly in "The Green Face."

"At the beginning, when we make our first, hesitant attempts, it is like a mindless groping in the dark, and sometimes we do things that resemble the actions of a madman and for a long time seem to lack all consistency. It is only gradually that the chaos forms into a countenance, in whose varying expressions we can read the will of destiny. At first they are grimaces, but that is the way it is with all great matters."

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mystic novel, December 31, 2001

By 

IVAN JIMENEZ CORREAL (MADRID Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green Face (Paperback)

The best thing about Meyrink's novels, and particularly about "The Green Face", is that the depth of its meanings goes beyond one single interpretation. It's very true that it deals with tantric love, and also with the "Wandering Jew" legend, but it has other hidden deep significances, like the mystic conception of life as it's taught in the Upanishads, Buddhism or Taoism. There is also a big chain that links Meyrink's images with avant-garde Expresionism; and it finally could be seen as the anticipating view of a totalitarian Europe under Nationalsocialism projecting its shadow in a sombre and sinister Amsterdam, which is the new disguised shape of Prague described by Kafka, and by Meyrink himself in "The Golem". The content of the novel is finally enriched by references to Jewish Cabalistic experience, Egyptian ancient religion and to African Vudu. It's a very complex novel, full of symbols and allegories, difficult to understand but definitely worth the trouble.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great literary symbolism, January 28, 2005

By 

lucifer-dianus "lucifer-dianus" (Louisville KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Green Face (Decadence from Dedalus) (Paperback)

What I've always enjoyed most in both poetry and prose, is when a writer utilizes constellations of mythological currents and symbols and their interconnections in an effective manner, giving the work the timeless quality of myth itself. This is particularly good if the writer is trying to put forth some kind of esoteric or philosophical idea, and I try to do this in my own writing. Generally speaking I tend to not enjoy these sorts of occultish novels from the late 19th and early 20th centuries even though I am an occultist, because they seem to lack artistic merit and instead have a tendency to act as a soapbox for indoctrination into some esoteric philosophy. Meyrink has not done this, at least in this novel, but has created a real work of art that is also a real page turner which will really pull you into it. It is also clear that the knowledge of various myths and folklore he drew upon in creating this novel was extensive, which is what makes it good.