Rilke's Venice

by Birgit Haustedt

Rainer Maria Rilke criss-crossed Europe; he visited Russia and sailed on the Nile. Yet over and over again, he went to St. Mark’s Square and the Lido, the Doge’s Palace and the Grand Canal. Travel for Rilke was a passion, a way of life, and it served a single to seek impulses, stimuli, and ideas for writing. Venice, above all others, enthralled and provoked him. Using his poems and extensive letters, Birgit Haustedt shows Rilke’s intimate relationship with the city he loved the most. As Rilke himself wrote, "Poems are not, as people think, feelings . . . they are practical experiences."

124 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2008

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is unfair for this, it’s really a three and a half stars or four. It’s partly a biog of Rilke, partly a guide to the wonders of Venice, and partly a study of some of his work written in or inspired by Venice. The trouble is you should really read it in Venice, and do some of the walks which it elaborates. I know Venice quite well having visited three times but it did not help me appreciate the book setting on my sofa in my home in England. So three stars but really much better than that.