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Vivo: The Life of Gustav Meyrink
Author(s): Mike Mitchell (Author)
- Publisher: Dedalus Limited
- Publication Date: October 20, 2008
- Language: English
- Print length: 196 pages
- ISBN-10: 1903517699
- ISBN-13: 9781903517697
Book Description
The illegitimate son of an aristocratic politician and an actress, Meyrink set up as a banker in Prague. At the same time achieving notoriety as a dandy and rake while also being a successful sportsman, winning prizes at rowing regattas; about to commit suicide, he chanced on a pamphlet about life after death, put his revolver away and started a lifelong interest in the occult. He unmasked false mediums and experimented with alchemy, drugs and clairvoyancy until an ‘affair of honour’ led him to challenge the whole of the Prague officer corps, setting machinations in motion which resulted in his being wrongly imprisoned; his bank collapsed and he became a writer.
Stories collected round him, so that it is often difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Vivo: The Life of Gustav Meyrink presents the reader with both the remarkable life and the fantastic legend that was Meyrink, allowing him and those who knew him to speak in their own words wherever possible.
Stories collected round him, so that it is often difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Vivo: The Life of Gustav Meyrink presents the reader with both the remarkable life and the fantastic legend that was Meyrink, allowing him and those who knew him to speak in their own words wherever possible.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
For many years an academic with a special interest in Austrian
literature and culture, Mike Mitchell has been a freelance literary
translator since 1995. He is one of Dedalus’s editorial directors and
is responsible for the Dedalus translation programme. He has published
over fifty translations from German and French, including Gustav
Meyrink’s five novels and The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy. His
translation of Rosendorfer’s Letters Back to Ancient China won the 1998
Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize and he had been shortlisted for the Oxford Weidenfeld Prize on two occasions.
literature and culture, Mike Mitchell has been a freelance literary
translator since 1995. He is one of Dedalus’s editorial directors and
is responsible for the Dedalus translation programme. He has published
over fifty translations from German and French, including Gustav
Meyrink’s five novels and The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy. His
translation of Rosendorfer’s Letters Back to Ancient China won the 1998
Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize and he had been shortlisted for the Oxford Weidenfeld Prize on two occasions.
