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by Erika a. Metzger (Editor), Michael Metzger (Editor), Alan Keele (Contribution by)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is the best-known German poet of his generation and is widely appreciated today by readers in Europe, the United States, and world-wide. Because of the inventiveness and musicality of his poetic language and the visionary intuition of his thinking, Rilke's influence extends well beyond poetry to include religion, philosophy, the social sciences, and the arts. His works have been widely translated into English, and new renderings of such cycles as the Duino Elegies appear frequently. Critics regard The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge as a seminal modern novel, and Rilke is one of the very few writers in German to be recognized internationally among the twentieth century's greatest authors. The Companion to Rilke provides essential, up-to-date analyses of a range of the major aspects of Rilke's works. The volume follows the chronology of Rilke's career, emphasizing those works that have met with the greatest critical interest. The essays include: Patricia P. Brodsky, "Colored Glass and Mirrors: Life with Rilke"; James Rolleston, "The Poetry and Poetics of the Young Rilke 1895-1902"; Judith Ryan, "Rilke's Early Narratives"; Ralph Freedman,"Das Stunden-Buch, Das Buch der Bilder>: Harbingers of Rilke's Maturity"; Lawrence Ryan, "Neue Gedichte-New Poems"; George C. Schoolfield, "Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge"; Kathleen Komar, "Rethinking Rilke's Duineser Elegien"; Alan Keele, "Poesis and the Great Tree of Being: A Holistic Reading of Rilke's Die Sonette an Orpheus"; Gerhard Bucher, "Rilke's Poetry in the French Language: The Enigma of Mythopoietic Reversal"; Karl E. Webb, "Rilke and the Visual Arts." ERIKA METZGER and MICHAEL METZGER (SUNY Buffalo) have written extensively on various aspects of German literature and have edited significant Baroque texts.
