The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

PENGUIN CLASSICS

THE NOTEBOOKS OF MALTE LAURIDS BRIGGE

RAINER MARIA RILKE, born in Prague in 1875, was one of the twentieth century's greatest poets. After a precocious start with decorative Art Nouveau verse, he found a hallmark voice of his own in The Book of Images (1902) and The Book of Hours (1905), and in the two volumes of New Poems (1907/8) produced a first undisputed masterpiece. Always closely involved with the visual arts, he wrote illuminatingly on Cézanne, Rodin and the artists of the Worpswede colony, one of whom, the sculptor Clara Westhoff, he married. In 1910 he published his one novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rarely in any one place for long, Rilke travelled constantly throughout Europe, and was fortunate in attracting patronage. Before the First World War he began his greatest work, the Duino Elegies, which he completed, together with the entire cycle of Sonnets to Orpheus, in early 1922. He died in Switzerland in 1926.

MICHAEL HULSE has won numerous awards for his poetry, edited a literature classics series and literary quarterlies, and scripted documentaries for television. Among the many books he has translated are titles by W. G. Sebald and Elfriede Jelinek and, for Penguin, Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther (1989) and Jakob Wassermann's Caspar Hauser (1992).

RAINER MARIA RILKE

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Translated and edited by

MICHAEL HULSE

BookishMall.com

PENGUIN CLASSICS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published in Germany as Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge 1910

This translation first published in Penguin Classics 2009

1

Translation and editorial material copyright © Michael Hulse, 2009

All rights reserved

The moral right of the translator and editor has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-192846-3

Contents

Chronology

Introduction

Further Reading

A Note on the Text

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Notes

Chronology

1875 Rainer Maria Rilke is born on 4 December in Prague, an only child, and is christened René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria on 19 December.

1882 Rilke starts attending a Roman Catholic primary school.

1885 Following years of tension due to his father's frustrated career prospects, his parents, Sophie and Josef, separate.

1886 He starts at a military school in the Austrian town of St Pölten. In retrospect, Rilke always describes this period in his life as traumatic.

1891 He transfers to the Linz Academy. Rilke remains there for less than a year, and returns to Prague to prepare privately for his school-leaving examinations.

1894 Leben und Lieder (Life and Songs), his first collection of poems, is published in November.

1895 He matriculates at the University of Prague, to study art history, philosophy and literature.

1896 Larenopfer (Offerings to the Lares) is published. Rilke spends two semesters studying art history in Germany, at the University of Munich.

1897 He publishes Traumgekrönt (Crowned with Dreams). In October, he moves to Berlin.

1898 Rilke divides his year between Germany, Bohemia and Italy, and publishes his fourth collection of poems, Advent.

1899 From April to June, Rilke makes his first journey to Russia. The rest of the year is spent mainly in Berlin and Prague. He publishes Zwei Prager Geschichten (Two Prague Stories) and another book of poems, Mir zur Feier (In Celebration of Myself).

1900 From May to August, he is in Russia for the second time. Accepting an invitation to Worpswede, Germany, from artist Heinrich Vogeler, he meets the sculptor Clara Westhoff.

1901 Rilke marries Clara on 28 April. Their daughter, Ruth, is born on 12 December.

1902 In August, Rilke moves to Paris, to begin work on a study of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Das Buch der Bilder (The Book of Images) is published.

1903 Rilke spends the first half of the year mainly in Paris, and the months from September in Rome, paying additional visits to Worpswede in the summer and to Venice and Florence. His monographs Worpswede and Auguste Rodin are published.

1904 Until June he is in Rome; from June to December in Denmark and Sweden. He publishes Geschichten vom lieben Gott (Tales of God) and Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke), which in Rilke's lifetime was the best-selling of all his works, sales exceeding 300,000 by the time of his death.

1905 Most of the year is spent in various parts of Germany, except for six weeks with Rodin at Meudon during the autumn. Das Stunden-Buch (The Book of Hours) is published.

1906 In March, Rilke's father dies. Rilke lives variously in France (Paris and Meudon), Belgium and Germany.

1907 He spends the first half of the year in Italy (on Capri and in Naples and Rome), and the second half in Paris, Prague, Vienna and Venice. The Neue Gedichte (New Poems) are published.

1908 Again Rilke is mainly on Capri and in Rome and Paris. He publishes Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil (New Poems, Part Two).

1909 For most of the year, Rilke is in France. In the autumn, he visits Orange, Avignon and Les Baux in Provence.

1910 In January, Rilke delivers the completed Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) to his publisher; the book is published in the summer. Rilke visits the Castle of Duino in Italy, and travels to Algeria and Tunisia.

1911 Rilke spends this year in Egypt, Italy, Germany and France, ending with two months at Duino.

1912 He remains at Duino till May, beginning the cycle of poems which will one day become the Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies), then lives in Venice till September, before moving to Spain for the winter months.

1913 Rilke divides his time between various parts of Germany and France. He publishes Das Marienleben (The Life of Mary) and a translation of Mariana Alcoforado's letters.

1914 He publishes a translation of André Gide's Le Retour de l'enfant prodigue (The Return of the Prodigal Son). The outbreak of war in August finds him in Germany, where he is obliged to remain.

1915 On 26 November, Rilke is called up by the Austro-Hungarian army.

1916 After three weeks of basic training, he is re-assigned to the Imperial War Archives in Vienna. In June, he is discharged, and returns to Munich.

1917 Rilke spends the year mainly in Munich and Berlin.

1918 His translation of Louise Labé's sonnets is published.

1919 Rilke spends the first half of the year in Germany and the second in Switzerland.

1920 He is mainly in Switzerland and Italy.

1921 Werner Reinhart, a businessman from a wealthy Winter-thur family, instals Rilke in the Swiss château of Muzot, in the Valais.

1922 In a few weeks in February, Rilke completes the Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies) and writes the entire cycle of Sonette an Orpheus (Sonnets to Orpheus).