7 h 58 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 58 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if another man's life begins to feel more real than your own?
In Gustav Meyrink's The Golem, an unnamed narrator finds himself caught in the life of Athanasius Pernath, a gem engraver in Prague's old Jewish quarter. A hat bearing Pernath's name connects them. As the boundary between the two men blurs, crowded houses, dark passages, and enclosed rooms turn the city into a place where private fears seem to enter the streets.
A mysterious visitor brings Pernath a book to repair, drawing him toward the legend of the golem, an uncanny presence associated with the quarter. Nearby, the junk dealer Aaron Wassertrum spreads fear through his power and hostility. As danger closes in, Pernath's missing memories become as troubling as the secrets around him. The mystery presses against his very sense of self.
What you’ll discover
- A city of shadows Enter dark passages and enclosed rooms where the quarter's oppressive atmosphere gives fear a physical shape.
- A self under pressure Follow Pernath as uncertain memories make his own identity a deeply unsettling mystery.
- An uncanny encounter Discover how a visitor and a book draw Pernath toward the quarter's haunting legend.
- A search for meaning Meet Hillel, the Jewish archivist who guides Pernath toward a spiritual understanding of his experiences.
- Lives caught in conflict Encounter Miriam's longing for a miraculous existence and Charousek's bitter hatred of Wassertrum.
Who will love it
For readers who love haunted cities, old legends, secret societies and dreams that feel more real than waking. It suits anyone drawn to Prague, Kabbalah and tarot.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sleeper enters another man's life
- The body remembers a vanished stranger
- Charousek turns revenge into a plan
- The Golem embodies what stays hidden
- Hillel questions what waking really means
- A hidden passage reveals his double
- The hidden self offers a promise
- Choice persists under unseen pressure
- Strange images hold the central questions
Who’s who
- Athanasius PernathA gem cutter in Prague's ghetto who cannot recall his youth and wants to learn who he is, while trying to protect a woman in danger.
- Aaron WassertrumA secondhand dealer with a split lip who spies on his neighbors and wants to ruin the man who destroyed his son.
- CharousekA poor, consumptive medical student who plans a long and exact revenge against Wassertrum, whose blood he carries.
- Schemajah HillelThe quiet archivist of the Jewish Town Hall, who seems to know the hidden meaning of things and guides Pernath inwardly.
- MirjamHillel's daughter, a strange and gentle young woman who lives on hope of miracles and waits for a true awakening.
- AngelinaA married noblewoman who loves Dr. Savioli in secret and fears that Wassertrum will expose and ruin them.
- ZwakhAn old puppeteer, kind and talkative, who tells the ghetto's legends and takes care of Pernath.
- RosinaA red-haired girl with a fixed smile who drives the brothers Loisa and Jaromir to jealousy and drifts toward a hard life.
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The Golem
by Gustav Meyrink · 1915
A gem cutter in Prague's ghetto is handed a book by a stranger he cannot remember, and his own past starts to open.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Moonlight falls on the foot of my bed and lies there like a large, bright, flat stone.”
In short
Imagine falling asleep over a riddle about a stone that looks like a piece of fat, and waking inside another man's life. That is how The Golem begins.
The Golem at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 10 min4 h 5 min fast, 6 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 73,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Gustav Meyrink
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sleeper wakes inside a gem cutter's life
The book opens in moonlight. A restless sleeper has read about the Buddha, and one sentence about a crow and a stone like fat keeps circling in his mind. A stubborn inner voice insists it is the wrong stone. At last his senses slip from his body, and he stands in a gloomy courtyard as someone else.
That someone is Athanasius Pernath, who engraves gems in Hahnpass Lane. He feels he has lived here forever, though he cannot recall arriving. From his window he watches the shop of Aaron Wassertrum, a secondhand dealer with a split lip and round fish eyes.
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Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Meyrink, Gustav. The Golem. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golem.
Meyrink, G. (2026). The golem. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golem (Original work published 1915)
Meyrink, Gustav. The Golem. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golem.
@book{meyrink2026golem,
author = {Meyrink, Gustav},
title = {The Golem},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golem},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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What is The Golem by Gustav Meyrink about?
A dreamer slips into the life of Athanasius Pernath, a gem cutter in Prague's Jewish quarter with no memory of his youth. Mysterious visitors, a secret love and a crime plot lead him toward his own hidden past.
Is the Golem in the book a monster?
Not in the usual sense. In the legend a rabbi makes a clay man, but in the novel the Golem is a rumor and a symbol that returns every thirty-three years, tied to the inner life of the ghetto and of Pernath.
Is The Golem a true story and where is it set?
It is a work of fiction, set in the Jewish quarter of Prague. The legend of the clay man, the old ghetto streets and the Old-New Synagogue are real parts of Prague lore that the author weaves into a fantastic tale.
The author
Gustav Meyrink
1868–1932 · Austrian novelist and translator
Gustav Meyrink was an Austrian writer and translator born in Vienna in 1868. He lived in Prague from 1883 to 1902 and later settled in Bavaria. He wrote novels and short stories. His novel The Golem was published in 1915. He died in Starnberg, Germany, in 1932.
“Moonlight falls on the foot of my bed and lies there like a large, bright, flat stone.”
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