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  • Published: 12 June 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141192321
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $21.00

Letters to a Young Poet





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.

  • Published: 12 June 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141192321
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 112
  • RRP: $21.00

Other books in the series

Emma
Persuasion
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

RAINER MARIA RILKE

RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875-1926) is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. His works include Duino Elegies, The Sonnets to Orpheus, and Letters to a Young Poet.

Also by RAINER MARIA RILKE

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Praise for Letters to a Young Poet

...I cannot think of a better book to put into the hands of any young would-be poet, as an inspirational guide to poetry and to surviving as a poet in a hostile world.

Harry Fainlight, The Times