About this title: Relatively early in Rilke's literary career, these letters began as advice addressed to a young student who had solicited it by sending Rilke some poems. The two authors never met, but over the course of several years a correspondence developed in which Rilke composed astoundingly elegant and eloquent characterizations of the craft and discipline of poetry--and life. Subsequently, these letters have come to embody a seminal 20th-century statement on the artistic temperament, spirituality, and creativity.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Date Published: 1963
ISBN-13:9780393001587ISBN:039300158X
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780393001587ISBN:039300158X
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Front cover flexible a good amount. Only a little edge wear. Clean pages, moderately aged. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Torn pages: NO ] [ Broken Seams: NO ] Publisher: W W Norton & Co Ltd Pub Date: 4/1/1963 Binding: Paperback Pages: 123. read more
Description: Very Good. 039300158X Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Description: Very Good. 0394741048 Great condition paperback book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, some edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Ltd
Date Published: 1963-04-01
ISBN-13:9780393001587ISBN:039300158X
Description: Very Good. This is a nice paperback copy. Binding is tight and square. Has some pencil underlining. Careful packaging and fast shipping. We recommend PRIORITY MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780394741048ISBN:0394741048
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, German. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 128 p. Audience: General/trade. Paperback in near new condition. read more
Description: New. Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas. GREAT BUY. Brand New From US Distributor. WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3, 500, 000 BOOKS SOLD. read more
Edition: Revised ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780393310399ISBN:0393310396
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Shows a little wear and toning. Text in English, Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 123 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: 7th printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books; Random House, New York
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780394741048ISBN:0394741048
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. xvi, 109 pp.; 18 cm. Translated from the German. Good+. Tight, clean copy. Browning. read more
Description: Very Good. 0931432944 first blank page with inscription from previous owner was removed/ light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages very good condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
"I've heard Lady GaGa talk about this book as her primary influence on art and philosophy so many times on television that I decided to borrow it from the library. It was an easy read but every page was full of beautiful passages that ranged from the cerebral to the spiritual. One might say that this book is a proverbs of the artistic.
Here are some of my favorites:
"If your everyday life appears to be unworthy subject matter, do not complain to life. Complain to yourself. Lament that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. For the creative artist, there is no poverty--nothing is insignificant or unimportant. there is beauty here because there is beauty everywhere."
"No one can advise or help you - no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write, find out whether it spreading out its root in the deepest places of your heart...Delve into yourself for a deep answer.""
"There are some books for which reviews are pointless. These books, instead of the reader selecting them from the shelf and listening to them as they unfold along their merry or unmerry way as they have before and always will, select the reader, at the right time, in the right place, like an old or a new friend who shows up just as the reader is on the verge of losing all hope and faith, pinned underneath the great questions of our times and battling their own monsters which threaten to swallow them whole."
"You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Perhaps you do carry within you the possibility of creating and forming, as an especially blessed and pure way of living; train yourself for that - but take whatever comes, with great trust, and as long as it comes out of your will, out of some need of your inner-most self, then take it upon yourself, and don't hate anything."
"This very short book has a very deep story to tell. The exchanges between Rilke and this young poet are incredibly insightful and incredibly relevant to me personally as a writer and part time seclusionist. This book pretty much taught me how to cope with and accept loneliness and solitude and to see them more like vital teachers and builders of the soul.
His passages about marriage and personal growth are as powerful as they are true. He talks about the importance of solitude and how we need it to truly understand who we are. Because if a person does not know him or herself than they, when entering into a relationship are giving this new person mere bits and pieces of who they are. I believe one must truly know who they are before making a commitment to spend the rest of their life with another person. We must never lose our identity nor our singularity. It is what makes us individuals. I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with the feeling that they are not applying enough personal meaning or significance to their writing or their life.
"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky."
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