The Green Face

Meyrink's second, and most mystical, novel from 1916. This is the first time this Dedalus edition has been available in North America. It was initially published in Germany to critical and commercial acclaim.

The Green Face takes place after the Great War in Amsterdam (which is used as a symbol of European decadence). The Green Face has classic Meyrink features: a mystical wedding, a galaxy of grotesque characters, the haunting atmosphere of the ghetto in Amsterdam that very much resembles the Prague of The Golem, and a stranger.

Fortunatus Hauberisser enters by a magician's shop called Chidher Green's Hall of Riddles seemingly by chance. Inside, amongst 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 and haunts him.

The rest of the novel chronicles Hauberisser's quest for the elusive and horrible old man.