Best Selling Books by Rainer Maria Rilke

"The ultimate expression of intergenerational literary wisdom." --Andrew Solomon, The New Yorker A work that has inspired generations, this new edition of Letters to a Young Poet features a fresh translation of Rilke''s ten classic letters, along with the missing letters from the young poet himself. For nearly a century, eager writers and young poets, as well as those simply looking for a purpose in life, have embraced the wisdom of Rainer Maria Rilke''s Letters to a Young Poet, first published in 1929. Most readers and scholars have long assumed that the letters from the young poet were forever lost to posterity. Yet, shockingly, these letters were recently uncovered in Germany, and now the acclaimed translator Damion Searls has not only cast a fresh eye on Rilke''s original letters but also those of the "young poet," Franz Xaver Kappus, an Austrian military cadet and an aspiring poet. This timeless edition, in addition to presenting their dialogue together for the first time in English, provides a new window into the workings of Rilke''s visionary poetic and philosophical mind, allowing us to reexperience the literary genius of one of the most inspiring works of twentieth-century literature.

Thanks to [Snow''s] translation, English-speaking readers will at last be able to know the entirety of these poems, Rilke''s first great work. --Stephen Mitchell.

Letters to a Young Poet , by Rainer Maria Rilke, is a profound and introspective collection of ten letters written between 1903 and 1908 to Franz Xaver Kappus, a young aspiring poet. In these letters, Rilke offers deeply personal reflections on the creative process, solitude, love, and the challenges of artistic life. Rather than providing conventional advice, he encourages Kappus to look inward, to trust in his own experiences, and to embrace uncertainty as a vital part of artistic and personal growth. Since its publication, Letters to a Young Poet has resonated with generations of readers, artists, and thinkers. Its meditative tone and timeless insights extend beyond poetry, offering guidance to anyone navigating the complexities of life and self-expression. Rilke''s emphasis on patience, authenticity, and inner development has made the book a cherished companion for those seeking meaning in their creative or emotional journeys. The enduring appeal of Letters to a Young Poet lies in its quiet wisdom and its invitation to embrace solitude as a space for transformation. Rilke''s words continue to inspire by affirming the power of introspection and the necessity of living one''s questions fully, with openness and courage.

This representative selection from Rilke''s large and extraordinary correspondence provides a kind of spiritual autobiography of the poet. The period here covered reflects all the great experiences of Rilke''s early adult life: his difficult beginnings, his relationships with Lou Andreas-Salome and with his wife Clara, his two journeys to Russia, his contact with the Worpswede artists, the influence of Paris, the revelation of Cezanne. Many of the letters are psychologically revealing; many touch upon characteristic themes, or freshly transcribe experience that sooner or later passes into the poetry.

For poetry lovers and students of literature and literary criticism, Robert Bly, the National Book Award-winning poet, brings his prowess as a translator and critic to bear on the work of one of the major German poets of the century.

Presents Rilke''s 1922 Sonnets to Orpheus, written in a burst of inspiration, and expressing a vision of a state of being in which all the ordinary human dichotomies are reconciled in an infinite wholeness. Also included is his Letters to a young poet, an influential series of letters written to a young officer cadet on the subject of poetics.

"This miracle of a book, perhaps the most beautiful group of poetic translations this century has ever produced," (Chicago Tribune) should stand as the definitive English language version.

Breathing, you invisible poem World-space in pure continuous interchange with my own being. Equipose in which I rhythmically transpire. Written only four years before Rilke''s death, this sequence of sonnets, varied in form yet consistently structured, stands as the poet''s final masterwork. In these meditations on the constant flux of our world and the ephemerality of experience, Rilke envisions death not only as one among many of life''s transformations but also as an ideally receptive state of being. Because Orpheus has visited the realm of death and returned to the living, his lyre, a unifying presence in these poems, is an emblem of fluidity and musical transcendence. And Eurydice, condemned to Hades as a result of Orpheus''s backward glance, becomes in Rilke''s universe a mythical figure of consolation and hope. Edward Snow, in his translations of "New Poems," "The Book of Images," "Uncollected Poems," and "Duino Elegies," has emerged as Rilke''s most able English-language interpreter. Adhering faithfully to the intent of Rilke''s German while constructing nuanced, colloquial poems in English, Snow''s "Sonnets to Orpheus" should serve as the authoritative translation for years to come.

A new translation of Rilke''s groundbreaking volume, following the formal properties of the original poems, especially meter and rhyme, as closely as English allows.

First published in 1910, Rilke''s Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge is one the first great modernist novels, the account of poet-aspirant Brigge in his exploration of poetic individuality and his reflections on the experience of time as death approaches. A young man named Malte Laurids Brigge lives in a cheap room in Paris while his belongings rot in storage. Every person he sees seems to carry their death within them and with little but a library card to distinguish him from the city''s untouchables, he thinks of the deaths, and ghosts, of his aristocratic family, of which he is the sole living descendant. Suffused with passages of lyrical brilliance, Rilke''s semi-autobiographical novel is a moving and powerful coming-of-age story. This new translation by Burton Pike is a reaction to overly stylized previous translations, and aims to capture not only the beauty but also the strangeness, the spirit, of Rilke''s German.

A collection of haunting, mystical poems of the night by the great Rainer Maria Rilke - most of which have never before been translated into English One night I held between my hands your face. The moon fell upon it. In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented the writer Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems, meticulously copied out in his own hand, which bore the title "Poems to Night." This cycle of poems which came about in an almost clandestine manner, are now thought to represent one of the key stages of this master poet''s development. Never before translated into English, this collection brings together all Rilke''s significant night poems in one volume.

Selected from ''Das Buch der Bilder'' and the two parts of ''Neue Gedichte, '' these poems were written in his less mystical period (1900-1908). The poems show Rilke''s deep concern with sculpture and painting and exhibit his particular artistic and poetic power. One of Germany''s most important poets, Rilke''s poetry is innovative, enigmatic, and entertainingly idiosyncratic. C.F. MacIntyre''s translations are both true to the original and poetic in their own right--From publisher description.

The reputation of Rainer Maria Rilke has grown steadily since his death in 1926; today he is widely considered to be the greatest poet of the twentieth century. This Modern Library edition presents Stephen Mitchell’s acclaimed translations of Rilke, which have won praise for their re-creation of the poet’s rich formal music and depth of thought. “If Rilke had written in English,” Denis Donoghue wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “he would have written in this English.” Ahead of All Parting is an abundant selection of Rilke’s lifework. It contains representative poems from his early collections The Book of Hours and The Book of Pictures; many selections from the revolutionary New Poems, which drew inspiration from Rodin and Cezanne; the hitherto little-known “Requiem for a Friend”; and a generous selection of the late uncollected poems, which constitute some of his finest work. Included too are passages from Rilke’s influential novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, and nine of his brilliant uncollected prose pieces. Finally, the book presents the poet’s two greatest masterpieces in their entirety: the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. “Rilke’s voice, with its extraordinary combination of formality, power, speed and lightness, can be heard in Mr. Mitchell’s versions more clearly than in any others,” said W. S. Merwin. “His work is masterful.”

The content of these sonnets, appearing comparatively simple at first, resonate far beyond the familiar legend of Orpheus and Eurydice; they have a range that encompasses the Singing God and his beloved Eurydice; legend in general; time; flight and change; architecture, music and dance; and animals, plants, flowers, and fruits.