Fire and Sword - Angel of the West Window Review

THE ANGEL OF THE WEST
WINDOW
By Gustav Meyrink


Gustav Meyrink evoked the brooding spirit of Prague in novels rich with
mystical symbolism, novels that might be coded with kabalistic
messages
themselves and capable of working a strange alchemy in their readers.
Meyrink was a banker and man-about-town in fin de siecle Prague until series
of duels
and a false accusation of mishandling bank funds smashed the
manacles of respectability that held him back. Thereafter he penned his
odd novels mixing his Judeo-Buddhist mysticism with zestful fantasy
yarns. 

The Angel of the West Window
relates the mystic quest of John
Dee, the Elizabethan alchemist and
secret agent, in parallel with the story of his modern descendant who
finds his own life drawn onto the strange path his ancestor once trod.
But the path to illumination is perilous and those who would pervert it
to their own ends wait for the unwary. 


Meyrink’s vision is a dizzying one. His work has been hidden behind a
language barrier too long, and Meyrink deserves to take his place
alongside Lovecraft,
      Tolkein,
and Howard as a
master of modern fantasy.
First published in 1927, Angel
and other Meyrink works were newly translated and reprinted by Daedelus
in the 1990s.
-Dave Hardy

      