Why read The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge?

Book cover of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Book description

First published in 1910, Rilke's "Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" is one the first great modernist novels, the account of poet-aspirant Brigge in his exploration of poetic individuality and his reflections on the experience of time as death approaches. This new translation by Burton Pike is a reaction to overly…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Rowlands

Author

Commonly thought to be about death, and our fear thereof, what I find most striking about this book is its piercing and utterly haunting analysis of the role of memories in making us who we are. The most important memories are the ones that are lost, and then return in a new form, deeply woven into our bodies, emotions, and feelings – as blood, as glance and gesture, as Rilke puts it. Rilke was a poet; this was his only excursion into the art form of the novel. So, the book falls apart after a while. But if anyone has…

From Mark's list on humans and other animals.