Walpurgisnacht

Illustrations by Stefan Eggeler for a 1922 edition of Gustav Meyrink's Walpurgis

nacht
From the collection of Richard Sica
Richard Sica reminded me that today (the last day of April) is Walpurgisnacht. I
've long had these six etchings from his collection ready to post, squirreled aw
ay on my hard drive (medication will soon exist for digital hoarding). They are
on copper etching paper and signed in pencil in the lower right corner.
There's little information on Eggeler in English, though he was a prolific illus
trator with a unique style. Here's a short bio:
An Austrian painter, printmaker and illustrator, Stefan Eggeler (1894 1969) studie
d art at the Vienna Academy. His first original etching was published in 1914 an
d during the following twenty years he created a number of outstanding engraving
s and etchings, most dealing with either figure studies or interior scenes. Via.
Walpurgisnacht is available in English (sans illustrations) from Dedalus, as par
t of its ambitious Meyrink translation program. Here is part of a review from Th
e Times:
It is 1917. Europe is torn apart by war, Russia in the grip of revolution, the A
ustro-Hungarian Empire on the brink of collapse. It is Walpurgisnacht, springtim
e pagan festival of unbridled desire. In this volcanic atmosphere, in a Prague o
f splendor and decay, the rabble prepare to storm the hilltop castle, and Dr Tha
ddaeus Halberd, once the court physician, mourns his lost youth. Phantasmagorica
l prose, energetically translated, marvelously evokes past and present, personal
and political, a devastated world.