Rilke

The Life of the Work

Charlie Louth

A comprehensive study of Rilke's work
Accessibly written to appeal to both specialists and general readers
Deals with the full breadth of Rilke's poetry from beginning to end, including the translations and poems written in French
Includes translations of all quotations
Based on close readings

Rilke

The Life of the Work

Charlie Louth

Description

The life of Rilke's work is in its words, and this book attends closely to the development of that life as it unfolds over Rilke's career. What is a poem, and how does it act upon us when we read? This is a question of the greatest interest to Rilke, who addresses it in several poems and for whom the experience of reading affords an interaction with the world, a recalibration of our ways of attending to it, which set it apart from other kinds of experience. Rilke's work is often approached in periods—he is the author of the Neue Gedichte, or of Malte, or of the Duino Elegies, or of the Sonette an Orpheus—as if the different phases of his work had little to do with one another, but in fact it is a concentrated and evolving exploration of the possibilities of poetic language, a working of the life of words into precise and exacting forms in dialogue with the texture of the world.

This book traces that trajectory in a series of close readings that do not neglect the lesser-known, uncollected poems and the poems in French, as well as Rilke's activity as a translator of Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Barrett Browning, Mallarmé, and Valéry, among many others. These encounters were part of Rilke's engagement with the world, his way of extending the reach of his language to get it ever closer to the ungraspable movements, the risk and promise, of life itself. One of his best-known poems ends with the words 'You must change your life', an injunction that can be seen to animate the whole of his work.

Rilke

The Life of the Work

Charlie Louth

Rilke

The Life of the Work

Charlie Louth

Author Information

Charlie Louth, Fellow and Tutor in German, The Queen's College, The University of Oxford

Charlie Louth is Fellow and Tutor in German at The Queen's College, University of Oxford.

Rilke

The Life of the Work

Charlie Louth

Reviews and Awards

"To come to Rilke's poems in Charlie Louth's company is to learn to read. With freshness and intelligence, he approaches them as if he were their first reader... The result is a definitive work that should not be missing from any Rilke library. A translation into German would be very welcome." - Jeremy Adler, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [translated from the original article to English]

"The readings are very fine, combining patient attention with ... tact, a light touch that allows the poetry to breathe." - Michael Minden, Journal of European Studies

"With his almost Empsonian purchase on syntax and sensibility, Louth's study will be indispensable for anyone with a serious interest in this most mysterious and masterly of poets." - Ben Hutchenson, Times Literary Supplement

"...a commanding monograph, one of the most insightful books about Rilke in recent years...One of the merits of Louth's book is the way he weaves together Rilke's biography with his poetry and incorporates rarely used evidence from Rilke's letters to illustrate the unity of life and work...Charlie Louth has written a definitive book that shouldn't be missing in any Rilke library." - Jeremy Adler, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [translated from the original article to English]

"Rilke: the Life of the Work is comprehensive, erudite, always clear..." - Martyn Crucefix, Agenda

"This book has many outstanding merits and virtues...but its greatest merit is that it exists. Only a miracle of dedication on the part of its author could have produced it." - Michael Minden, Journal of European Studies