By Night Under the Stone Bridge
[In the following review, Clyde praises By Night Under a Stone Bridge as imaginative and pleasant to read.]
In Prague at the end of the 16th century, the court of the mad Emperor Rudolf II bulges with flatterers, opportunists and spies, while the city itself swarms with pestilence, destitution and crime. Corrupt from top to bottom, the remains of the Holy Roman Empire teeter on the verge of economic and moral collapse. But in this charming fable by Leo Perutz,… moments of connection, both earthly and surreal, draw the community together. Rudolf won't choose a bride because he's fallen irretrievably in love with a completely unsuitable woman—Esther, the beautiful wife of a ghetto merchant named Meisl, a man "so rich that he spreads sugar on his honey." To keep the peace, the Great Rabbi casts a spell enabling the lovers to tryst every night in their dreams. To detail the plot any further would be to destroy the pleasure of the tale, which unfolds in a suggestive, fragmentary way. Suffice it to say that By Night Under the Stone Bridge is full of surprising characters, including jesters, talking dogs and aristocrats in disguise. Likewise, the story line takes many bizarre, mannerist turns; it's punctuated by such staples of myth and fantasy as curses, prophecies and visitors from the world of the spirits. The result, which has been richly translated from the German by Eric Mosbacher, is a tantalizing blend of the occult and the laughable, of chaos and divine order. Some of Perutz's revelations shed light on the age of the Reformation, and much of what he depicts is eternal.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.