Letters to a Young Poet: Little Black Classics (Penguin Little Black Classics)

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Book Overview

'What matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.'

A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.

One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0241252059
• ISBN13: 9780241252055
• Release Date: January 2016
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 56 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 4.4" x 0.2" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

I received my book in the mail and didn't realize it was so small, but as I got to reading it for the first time I couldn't put it down. for it to be so small it was in tip-top shape no damage or writing inside or out.

A glimpse into the mind of an optimistic writer at the turn of the 20th century

Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and his parents first thought that he would follow in his father's footsteps and become an army officer. After a stint in military school, he studied the humanities and became a prolific writer and poet. The first section of this book consists of a series of letters written by Rilke to Franz Xaver Kappus, who was an aspiring poet. In those letters, we see some of the writing talent of Rilke as well as a small portrait of a continent in transition. The ten letters from Rilke to Kappus were written from 1903 to 1908, a time when Europe was in the midst of a transition to the modern era. The transition was still in the early stages and it took a major war to execute it, but there are clear indications of change in the air. The final section is a short chronicle of the letters, further explanations of their contents and meaning. This short book is a look into the mind of a poet who was very good and who saw the world changing around him. However, Rilke was very much a member of the European intelligentsia that existed before World War I and only the early phases of the transition of Western civilization are evident in his writings.

Love as a burden and an apprenticeship...

Rilke's words are so counterintuitive in this day and age. When he speaks of love it is not with urgency and grand passion - rather, it is with a sense of duty and open acceptance of hardship. When he speaks of solitude, he acknowledges its difficulty but stresses its absolute necessity. When he speaks of self-realization, he refers not to arrival at answers but love of the questions themselves. And when he speaks of writing, he approaches it with reverence and a sense of enormity, saying that it is a vocation which must be patiently and cautiously cultivated. All of these things he discusses with incredible wisdom and lucidity. For anyone feeling the multiplicity of strains the outside world can impose, Rilke centers, assures, and illuminates.

"When a prince is going to speak silence must be made"

"Letters to a Young Poet" is a very small book that allows us to enjoy the correspondence between a famous writer and an aspiring poet. This exchange of letters began in 1903 thanks to a missive that Franz Xaver Kappus sent to R. M. Rilke, and continued for many years, until 1908. Why is this little book important?. Because it allows us to read what Rilke thought about many subjects, for example life, poetry, and art. And because, as F. X. Kappus said, "when a prince is going to speak, silence must be made". Kappus wanted to share the insights that Rilke gave him, and thus compiled his missives in "Letters to a young poet". The letters are few, and not overly long, but in this case the knowledge offered is certainly greater than the number of pages. It is easier to show you what I mean by giving you an example... For instance, what Rilke's advices Franz to do, when he tells him to: "Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist". On the whole, I highly recommend this book to everybody. It will probably be more useful to aspiring writers, but people who simply enjoy literature will delight in it too :) Belen Alcat

A timeless masterpiece

The letters to a young poet are a piece of advise for everybody who is dissatisfied with his life or who maybe just wants to widen its horizon. It is a book that you should read in a period of your life, where you are able to have time for solitude. This book is the embodiement of impressionistic ideas. It is a very personal book and therefore I do not feel able to give a general recommendation and I would also not say that it is a book full of great wisdoms( there are very few of those) but it is a book that shows possible ways of reaching a deeper feeling of life. And it is a book which is full of the wonderfully chosen words of this great great poet: Rainer Maria Rilke

For the Artist

This book first came to my attention when a good friend of mine sent me a quote from it, which has since become my life quote ("Be patient toward everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves..Do not 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") Since I heard this quote, I tracked down a copy of the book after searching a half dozen bookstores and libraries, and it was worth every minute of work to find it. This book has been put on the highest level of appreciation in my mind, up there with Richard Bach's 'Illusion' and 'One'; my two other favorite books. Rilke's book was written for the artist; the person who wants to live life to its fullest and explore both the inner and outer world and their connections.Although, as another reviewer said, this book will not be fully appreciated by all readers, it is a must read for everyone, especially those who appreciate spirituality, art and living.