Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Description

“A beautiful and wise book which offers comfort in the face of life’s challenges and provides guidance. You’ll find quotes that will stay with you forever. My favourite is ‘try to love the questions themselves.'” Sinead

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.