Paperback, 99 pages
Spanish language
Published 1988 by Alianza.
Books, novels, essays, poems of writers are great and all. But reading letters they wrote for friends and family give a deeper glimpse in to their minds and their hearts. This book made me feel like I have Rilke as my own mentor. It contains probably some of the most well-written lessons about art and life.
a poet even in correspondence and council.
Rilke has a soothing prose style, and a great confidence in the value of deeply personal experience. I would hesitate to take his relationship advice, although I think it's fundamentally well founded. It's odd reading only one half of a correspondence.
I really, really enjoyed this group of letters and would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about writing. Rilke's letters to a young man who is torn between a military career and pursuing poetry professionally are heartfelt and philosophical at the same time. Rilke also shares his ideas about genuine love, gender equality, faith, and literary criticism (which he feels pretty strongly about!). As I said, highly recommended.
To read a more detailed review with excerpts from the letters, go to my blog post: outsideofacat.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/letters-to-a-young-poet-rilke/ -- it seems like a waste of space to post the same review twice. :)
