5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent view into the depths of Rodin's soul, December 7, 2011
[Indeed, it does appear that Amazon.com has linked three completely different books together as different "editions," when in reality these are three entirely different collections of essays by the same author. My review is of the book,
Auguste Rodin (Best of) published in 2011 by Parkstone International.]
Francois Auguste Rene Rodin (1840-1917) was a great artist, and is generally considered one of the great sculptors of late-nineteenth/early-twentieth centuries. Among the many men and women who became disciples of the great man was Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), a Bohemian-Austrian poet. Rilke worked closely with Rodin, and became his secretary.
This book contain three essays by Rilke, The Poet's Tribute to the Great Sculptor, The Walking Man (which was originally given as a speech in 1907), and Rodin in Private. Rilke's observations of Rodin are quite fascinating, and are all the more significant for the fact that he was close to the man, and was speaking from personal observation, rather than from viewing his art and reading soulless biographies.
Scattered throughout the book are many color pictures of Rodin's sculptures showing the many different styles and imagery that the great man used. The third and shortest essay (Rodin in Private) discusses Rodin's sexual liberation and is accompanied by reproductions on his erotic drawings.
This really is an excellent book, one that is well worth the reading for anyone who loves great art. Never dull, the book is an excellent view into the depths of Rodin's soul.
(Review of Auguste Rodin (Best of) by Rainer Maria Rilke)
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5.0 out of 5 stars
"Rodin's fate was to work like nature works, not like men.", September 5, 2011
This review is from: Auguste Rodin (Hardcover)
[Please note: The review below applies to the book entitled "Auguste Rodin," published by Archipelago Books and copyrighted 2004. It is available on Amazon at this link:
Auguste Rodin. After I posted this review I discovered Amazon had decided to place the review also on the product pages of other books that Amazon considers to be "related" to the Archipelago Books edition. This is an odd thing for Amazon to do, since the other editions are, in significant ways, different books. They are the products of other publishers and editors, have different page counts, contain a different set of photographs, use different translators to render Rilke's words into English, contain a different (or no) introduction, etc. Among these other editions are
Auguste Rodin (Best of), and
Auguste Rodin (Dover Books on Art, Art History). I do not have an opinion on the merits of those other volumes.]
The volume at hand was smartly conceived by its small press publisher, Archipelago Books. The book is nearly square in size to accommodate long-lined text printed on quality paper. It is sturdily bound in a partial cloth binding. This has the look and feel of a gift book, and one with the surprise of sophisticated content. If the editor's plan was to see what happens when you assemble in one package the work of three powerful communicators -- a living master essayist on matters literary, a titanic sculptor who ushered in new forms, and a poet striving to understand and explicate the invisible -- that plan succeeds in sparking insights.
The book opens with an Introduction by William Gass, a long-time Rilke maven and an unsparing arbiter of things cultural. Gass stylishly fulfills his setting-the-stage duty. Using multiple perspectives (historical, aesthetic, biographical, psychological) he helps the reader understand why the young poet developed an awed appreciation for Rodin (the man and his work). We learn how Rilke absorbed the sculptor's personal and aesthetic credo ("il faut travailler, rien de travailler") with lasting effect on his mature poetic output.
All that Rilke learned from Rodin he expressed to the world in two significant pieces which make up the bulk of this book: an essay written at the very start of his personal association with the elder artist in 1903; and a public lecture written at the end of their relationship in 1907. Daniel Slager provides fine new translations from the German of both of these texts. Also found tucked within the pages of this book are four groups of eight glossy color photographs by Michael Eastman: a total of 32 close-up images of major pieces by Rodin that Rilke (and Gass) discuss.
The book contains 88 pages of text; this modest nominal count is misleading since in fact the material is the equivalent of about 150 pages in a standard-sized book. As a reading experience the book feels large thanks to the breadth of Professor Gass' encyclopedic observations, paragraph after paragraph, and thanks to the seemingly unstoppable eruption of Rilke's insights, sentence after sentence. Rilke reconnoiters the mountain of Rodin, tossing off witticisms ("Fame is no more than the sum of all the misunderstandings that gather around a new name"), evocative imagery (on The Burgher of Calais: "The figures withdraw within themselves, curling up like burning paper"), and grand judgments ("The artist's task consists of making a world from the smallest part of a thing"). There are extended passages, describing pieces of art and art making, in which Rilke's prose itself achieves a mountainous beauty.
True, the pieces that make up this assemblage are available elsewhere: Rilke's essays are available in other volumes (for example,
Where Silence Reigns: Selected Prose); Gass's Introduction is reprinted in his book of essays,
A Temple of Texts (American Literature Series); and there are many illustrated art books devoted to Rodin's work. But as a package, I consider this particular book to be a fine and rewarding enterprise.
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17 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"All right, Ben. Attend me.", January 25, 2005
This review is from: Auguste Rodin (Hardcover)
"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them."
-Robert A. Heinlein "Stranger in a Strange Land"
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