# LBL Reviews The Angel of the West Window by Gustave Meyrink (1927)



## Lobolover (Jun 27, 2010)

The last finished novel from the author of the "Golem" , I had mixed expectations for this one . You see I have read Meyrink's penultimate novel "_The White Dominikan_" (Der Weisse Dominikaner , 1921) and found it less a novel and more a confusing hodgepodge of allegorical and pseudo allegorical mystical discusions and ramifications , with very little story or closure .

However even when I reached page 50 , I already knew this was going to be diferent - for you see....something actualy _happened _!

The novel is by far on the same level , if not superior , to "_The Golem_" in terms of sometimes confusing , very complex mysticism . However , it lacks the lengthy sermon like allegories of the aforementioned "White Dominican" and moves along , somewhat , even if the pace is a little sluggish .

The plot concerns one man (whose name we only found out on the last page or so is "Müller") who recieves an envelope from his cousin , John Roger , as he is now the last remaining member of his family . Inside he finds the papers of his ancestor , the famous John Dee . The first quarter of the novel deals with the various diary entries of John Dee , raging from imprisonment , to freedom and bitter reminescence . All through his life he sought to conquer Greenland , only to realise it was a mere allegory for a far greater kingdom "eslewhere" , and this makes the old man sad and bitter , at his failed life and his inability to gain the hand of Queen Elisabeth . However , little he knows far worse things lie ahead .

Meanwhile in the present our narrator is pestered by a beatifull russian emigré , who insists he must posses a certain dagger , which she seeks after as a long lost part of her late father's weapon colection .

It is shortly thereafter that the narrator becomes obsesed with the life of John Dee to the point of realisation that he himself IS John Dee , and his new housemaid is his wife Jane . However his happiness is constantly being endangered by the Russian Countess , who is a manifestation of sorts of the ancient Godess Isais and who seeks to make all his efforts in vain .

At the end of the novel "Jane" kills the countess (and dies along with her) , only to make her apear as a succubus to the near maddened narrator , who seeks to triumph over her so that he can reach his Queen in perfect unison of a chymical marriage .

The novel ends with him entering a certain mystical realm of deathless alchemysts to be a sort of guide and maker of light for humanity .

While the novel is certainly complex and rich in imagery , it may be dificult for one unacustomed to Meryink's style to read it . For Meyrink does not employ the usual plot structure of novels , but instead has his charactes go through constant battles of a spiritual nature , fighting for self perfection in order to reap rewards for their victory on the spiritual plain . The ocurences of day-to-day life are mere masks , mere flickering phantoms that glide over the surface of these great internal struggles .

However , I must say that , as far as the metaphysical ending to the novel goes , I find that the end of both "_The Golem_" and even "_The Green Face_" surpasses it . Comparing the fate of a man who is in fact a golem , which we learn of through memories transmited years after the events to another man , in _Golem _and the practical spiritual apocalypse and Eden type resurection of the _Face_ with a rather uninpsired group of pseudo mystical , mostly unknown "brothers" in the spiritual plain of an ancient Castle seems rather dificult .

Over all I would rank this novel below the _Green Face_ due to it's ending , though stil above the _White Dominican_ .


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