''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'', first published as ''Journal of My Other Self'',
[ M. D. Herter Norton (tr.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1949, 1992. Translator's Foreword, p. 8.] is a 1910 novel by Austrian poet
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recog ...
. The novel was the only work of prose of its length that he wrote and published. It is semiautobiographical and is written in an
expressionistic
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
style, dealing with themes of alienation, unfamiliarity, death by illness, longing, childhood memories and the
Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable wi ...
. It was conceptualized and written whilst Rilke lived in Paris, mainly inspired by
Sigbjørn Obstfelder's ''A Priest's Diary'' and
Jens Peter Jacobsen
Jens Peter Jacobsen (7 April 1847 – 30 April 1885) was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Br ...
's ''
Niels Lyhne
''Niels Lyhne'' is an 1880 novel written by the Danish author Jens Peter Jacobsen.
General description
A naturalistic work, ''Niels Lyhne'' is considered to be part of the Modern Breakthrough, a style of Realism native to Scandinavia; howev ...
''.
English translations
* John Linton (Norton, 1930; Hogarth Press, 1930). Originally published under the title ''The Journal of My Other Self''.
*
Mary D. Herter Norton (Norton, 1949)
*
Stephen Mitchell (Random House, 1982)
*
Burton Pike (Dalkey Archive, 2008)
*
Michael Hulse
Michael Hulse (born 1955) is an English poet, translator and critic, notable especially for his translations of German novels by W. G. Sebald, Herta Müller, and Elfriede Jelinek.
Life and works
Hulse was educated locally in Stoke-on-Trent unti ...
(Penguin, 2009)
*
Robert Vilain (Oxford, 2016)
*
Edward Snow (Norton, 2022)
See also
*
''Le Mondes 100 Books of the Century
References
External links
English translation of ''Notebooks'' Original text at zeno.org
1910 German-language novels
Autobiographical novels
Austro-Hungarian culture
German-language novels
Works by Rainer Maria Rilke
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