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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

Maldoror and Poems
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