Gustav Meyrink
Pipistrelli

This new volume, intriguingly titled Bats (Fledermäuse – 1916), dedicated by Tre Editori to the Austrian writer Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932), is commendable. He is a legendary figure in his own way, a sort of initiate who, through literature, sought to convey the teachings of ancient esoteric doctrines. The title is likely a tribute to a friend of Meyrink who owned a place called "Fledermaus," but also to a very popular 1874 operetta by Johann Strauss. The care and translation of the volume is by Anna M. Baiocco, who, with competence and passion, illustrates in the introduction the symbolism of the bat in Chinese culture (different from the European one symbolized by Dracula by Bram Stoker) where these animals are seen as "messengers of eternal life." Even "when coupled with the swastika, the small flying mammal traditionally assumes for the Chinese the meaning of 'infinite blessings.'" And Meyrink himself chose the hooked cross symbol for the first edition of this volume, although this was in a period before it was later used by the Nazi regime starting in 1920. In fact, the writer was also the subject of harsh criticism by the official criticism that stigmatized his "mocking attitude towards the bourgeois order." When the Nazi burnings of books disliked by the regime began, even Meyrink's works were burned despite Hitler being an admirer of The Golem.

Bats for the first time in Italy, contains 7 stories largely previously unpublished in Italy, except for 3 which were released as part of The Cardinal Napellus, an anthology published by the prestigious Biblioteca di Babele series by Franco Maria Ricci curated by the great Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. Today the book has become a collector’s item. The stories in Bats date back to the same period as The Golem and The Green Face, two of his most significant novels. These are tales where we find esoteric conceptions based on the theme of "awakening from the state of sleep that is life." The initial story Meister Leonhard is partly autobiographical and reveals his hatred for his mother (depicted as a bat) and is also a tribute to the German mystic Meister Eckhart. The story narrates the quest, by the protagonist Meister Leonhard, for the Divine. One of the most significant stories here is, in my opinion, The Visit of Johann Hermann Obereit in the Land of the Time-Suckers. It is a tale where, in a parallel dream dimension, our doubles transform into a kind of vampires who fatten and feast. Salvation will be achieved by removing them from one's soul to seek immortality. The symbolism of this story will not fail to interest even Carl Gustav Jung. The Game of Crickets is an occult interpretation of the reasons that triggered World War I and tells us about the dark sect of the Dugpa of Tibet. The Dugpa sorcerers bring the Destruction of the conflict by placing crickets (symbols of human beings) on a map depicting Europe and making them annihilate each other. The Cardinal Napellus is instead a disturbing and distressing story that has something of Poe (although it lacks the esoteric dimension of Meyrink), while The Four Brothers of the Moon uses the grim images of the Apocalypse of St. John to symbolize once again man's tragic fate, aimed at self-destruction as was happening at that time with World War I, felt as the beginning of an era of obscurantism by the writer.

The volume is then completed by other stories (many of which are unpublished in Italy) written between 1926 and 1932. The protagonist (although not always mentioned) of these stories is the city of Prague. The Watchmaker is undoubtedly one of the most significant: an ancient and bizarre clock is described that stops, leaving its owner terrified as he considered the object as the symbol of his heart. He thus turns to a sort of clock doctor while slowly the setting fades into a dimension outside of time with great dream-like suggestion. Also, The Door on the Phoenix, which closes this anthology, is very important as it is Gustav Meyrink's last story (written in 1932, the year of his death) and represents a sort of his spiritual testament. In practice, the author has a real out-of-body experience, not realizing he is already dead until he sees his own corpse.

In conclusion, Bats is a precious collection that helps us delve deeper into the magical universe of Gustav Meyrink. The volume is also enriched by illustrations and a chronology of the author’s life and works.