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Letters to a Young Poet

By Rainer Maria Rilke
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Letters to a Young Poet is a collection of ten letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to a young aspiring poet, offering advice and insight into the creative process. Through these letters, Rilke discusses themes of solitude, artistic exploration, and the pursuit of personal truth, encouraging the young poet to trust in their own unique vision. The correspondence provides a profound reflection on the nature of art and the challenges of the creative journey.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate profound reflections on creativity, art, and the human condition. The author's eloquent and thoughtful letters offer timeless wisdom and inspiration for anyone passionate about understanding their inner artistic journey or navigating life's existential questions.

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Letters to a Young Poet

At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself; these profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds. This edition deals with these letters.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Rilke's powerfully touching letters to an aspiring young poet, now in Penguin Classics.

At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for writers and artists of all kinds.

This book also contains the 'Letter from a Young Worker', a striking polemic against Christianity written in letter form, near the end of Rilke's life. In Lewis Hyde's introduction, he explores the context in which these letters were written and how the author embraced his isolation as a creative force.

Charlie Louth's afterword discusses the similarities and contrasts of the two works, and Rilke's religious and sexual wordplay.

This edition also contains a chronology, notes, and suggested further reading.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Letters to a Young Poet is highly regarded as an inspirational guide for aspiring poets, offering heartfelt advice on creativity and navigating the challenges faced by poets in a sometimes unsympathetic world.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780141192321

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 April 2012

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Afterword by Charlie Louth
  • Edited by Charlie Louth
  • Introduction by Lewis Hyde
  • Notes by Charlie Louth
  • Translated by Charlie Louth

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 7.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 89g

Pages: 112

Collections

Arts & Culture Non-Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Rainer Maria Rilke

About the Author

Rainer Maria Rilke was born in 1875 in Prague. He studied literature, art history and philosophy in both Munich and Prague, and is often considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets. His two most famous verse sequences are the Sonnets to Orpheus and the Duino Elegies; his two most famous prose works are the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Charlie Louth was born in 1969 in Bristol. He is a Fellow of the Queen's College, Oxford, where he lectures in German. He is the author of H lderlin and the Dynamics of Translation (1998). Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic. A MacArthur Fellow and former director of undergraduate creative writing at Harvard University, Hyde is a Fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

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