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The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

This remarkable book is the only novel by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), the greatest German-language poet of his time. It is, in a sense, a true curiosity - dark and intense - and possesses, not surprisingly, strong elements of autobiography.

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge) has even been described as an anti-novel. It is set in Paris in the period just before the First World War, but it presents a bleaker milieu than that described by Proust. The language is terse, the atmosphere painful, the images uncompromising. Rilke drew on the short period he spent in Paris in 1903 where, in contrast to the rural circumstances in which he had lived before, he found the underbelly of urban life distressing. He saw the sick, the vagrants, the beggars and those descending into mental and emotional confusion and despair. And he worried that he, too, might become like them.

This is the theme he explores in The Notebooks in a first-person torrent of observation and reflection. Malte, a young Dane with little money but with the aspiration to be a poet, expresses a continuing uncertainty and unease, in the form of a diary, without obvious timeline or direction, except for its increasing intensity. Published in 1910, The Notebooks is a striking contrast to the crafted, polished poetry for which Rilke was better known. It has affected and been admired by many writers since, including Jean-Paul Sartre. Jamie Parker’s reading underpins the fear and the tension of the work.

Translation William Needham.


Sprecher*in:

Dauer:

  • 134 seiten

Sprache:

Englisch


  1. Lyrikalische Bibliothek

    Heinrich Heine, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Charles Baudelaire, John Keats, Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Heym, Wilhelm Busch, Arno Holz, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christian Morgenstern, Joachim Ringelnatz, Georg Trakl, Ludwig Tieck, Stefan Zweig, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Wedekind, Franz Werfel, Wolfgang Borchert, Karl Kraus, Kurt Tucholsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ludwig Kalisch, Jakob van Hoddis, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

    audiobook
  2. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 91-95

    Arno Holz, John Keats, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke

    audiobook
  3. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 76-80

    Christian Morgenstern, Karl Kraus, Wolfgang Borchert, Kurt Tucholsky, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, John Keats, Rainer Maria Rilke

    audiobook
  4. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 66-70

    John Keats, Wilhelm Busch, Ludwig Tieck, Rainer Maria Rilke, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    audiobook
  5. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 56-60

    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Keats, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Arno Holz, Wilhelm Busch, Georg Heym, Heinrich Heine, Franz Werfel, Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Edgar Allan Poe

    audiobook
  6. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 51-55

    Frank Wedekind, Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Heym, Charles Baudelaire, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Christian Morgenstern, Joachim Ringelnatz, Arno Holz, Wilhelm Busch, Heinrich Heine, Stefan Zweig, Georg Trakl, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Tieck, Edgar Allan Poe

    audiobook
  7. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 46-50

    Ludwig Kalisch, Else Lasker-Schüler, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Arno Holz, John Keats, Heinrich Heine, Karl Kraus, Georg Heym, Joachim Ringelnatz, Ludwig Tieck, Franz Werfel, Kurt Tucholsky, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jakob van Hoddis, Wilhelm Busch

    audiobook
  8. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 41-45

    Karl Kraus, Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wolfgang Borchert, Georg Trakl, Wilhelm Busch, John Keats, Georg Heym, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Else Lasker-Schüler, Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Arno Holz, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Ludwig Tieck, Frank Wedekind, Joachim Ringelnatz, Christian Morgenstern

    audiobook
  9. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 36-40

    John Keats, Georg Heym, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Wilhelm Busch, Joachim Ringelnatz, Arno Holz, Stefan Zweig, Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allan Poe, Ludwig Tieck, Charles Baudelaire, Frank Wedekind, Ludwig Kalisch, Heinrich Heine, Kurt Tucholsky, Franz Werfel, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    audiobook
  10. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 31-35

    Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Keats, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, Charles Baudelaire, Wilhelm Busch, Christian Morgenstern, Arno Holz, Georg Heym, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Karl Kraus, Georg Trakl, Ludwig Tieck, Joachim Ringelnatz, Rainer Maria Rilke

    audiobook
  11. Lyrikalische Lesung Episoden 21-25

    Ludwig Tieck, Joseph von Eichendorff, Christian Morgenstern, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Werfel, Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke

    audiobook
  12. Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    book