Rilke: The Last Inward Man

This is not a biography, not quite criticism but really exegesis and more accurately an appreciation of Rainer Maria Rilke.. The author loves this poet. He is an "angel", in the presence of whose work "you must change your life". She writes "Rilke—and I’m not the first to think this—was possibly given to us to help us withstand Wittgenstein." Possibly? Given to us by who? Presumably by God. Rilke is not explicitly called a god, yet God, "like Rilke, has difficulty breaking through to a shared reality." The worship of the poet keeps on in every page, and can tire the more cynical readers. More importantly, it gets in the way of interesting analysis, of which there is plenty.

Connecting and parallel lines are drawn between Rilke and Arnold Schoenberg, Freud, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Jean Paul Sartre and various painters. Darwin's name serves as a kind of antagonist throughout the book, with the feeling behind the poetry being presented as an antithesis if not a reaction to the meaning of evolution by means of natural selection. There's no technical analysis, but there are enough linguistic observations to keep the nerdier reader's interest.

The Last Inward Man is not a book for anyone new to Rilke, or for anyone looking to overcome an existing indifference to Rilke. Lovers of Rilke, this one's for you.

Rilke is one of my favorite writer: a great poet and a writer of Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, a book I loved so much I read it in German.
He's not political in a traditional way but he talks about human experience.
The author did an excellent job in talking about him and his contemporaries.
An excellent book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I was a bit out of my depth with this one as I clearly wasn’t the intended reader. I have read little of Rilke’s work and this passionately argued and in depth and insightful analysis of his poetry is obvious written for someone with far more knowledge than me. However, I did learn from it, gleaned at least some understanding, and although the author’s admiration for Rilke’s poetry sometimes made me feel I was reading a hagiography rather than a critical study, the book did provide me with many insights into both the work and inner life, and were I to read more of the poetry at some point this is definitely a book I would read again.