The Opal (And Other Stories)

Rating:
Summary: The Origin of Modern Short Stories
Review: Meyrink excels with this off-the-wall collection of dark humour. In "The Violet Death," a secret Tibetan mantra transforms half the world's population into purple jelly, because folks around the globe are too stupid not to refrain from saying it. Only the deaf survive. "The Ardent Soldier" makes fun of physicians and the military (two of Meyrink's favourite scapegoats). A young Austrian trumpeteer is taken ill with a temperature of 49 degress Celsius! His temperature continues to rise until the physicians, in bafflement, try to find a way to keep him from burning up everything. In "What's the Use of White Dog S***?" Meyrink sharply satirizes the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a military quest for dried-up dog turds. With his brilliant humour, it's a wonder Meyrink wasn't put to death by the Emperor, or later, the Nazis. Well worth a read.