Auguste Rodin (Hardcover)

by Rainer Maria Rilke (Author), Michael Eastman (Photographer), Daniel Slager (Translator), William H. Gass (Introduction) "RODIN WAS SOLITARY BEFORE HE was famous..." (more)
Key Phrases: Victor Hugo, The Burghers of Calais, The Gates of Hell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"reads almost like a lyrical essay....fantastical, a work of the imagination that sees.....much beyond the everyday and real." -- The Complete Review, August 2004

Product Description

Sculptor Auguste Rodin once wrote that "one has only to look at a human face to find a soul, no feature deceives; hypocrisy is as transparent as sincerity. The inclining of the brow, the least furrowing of a look may reveal the -secrets of the heart." Rodin was fortunate to have as his -secretary Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most sensitive poets of our time. These essays discussing Rodin’s work and development as an artist are as revealing of Rilke as they are of his subject. Written in 1903 and 1907, these meditations mark the entry of the poet into the world of letters. The book sheds light on the profound psychic connection between the two great artists, both masters of giving life to the invisible within the visible, concerned with "the unnoticed, the small, the concealed . . . with the profound and surprising unrest of living things." Over a dozen -reproductions of Rodin’s little known water-colors and drawings will accompany the essay.

Rainer Maria Rilke, born in Prague in 1875, is arguably the greatest German poet since Goethe. His major works include his Duino Elegies, The Sonnets to Orpheus, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, The Book of Hours, and Letters to a Young Poet.

Daniel Slager (Translator) is an editor at Harcourt and a contributing editor to Grand Street. His translations of texts by Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka, and Heiner Muller have been widely acclaimed, and his renderings of Durs Grunbein, Marcel Beyer, Felicitas Hoppe, and Terezia Mora have marked these authors’ first publications in the U.S.

William Gass (Introduction) is the author of four novels and five books of essays. He has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller, Lannan, and Guggenheim foundations. He has received two National Book Critics Circle Awards for Criticism. Gass lives in St. Louis where he is the Director of the -International Writers Center.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Archipelago Books (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972869255
• ISBN-13: 978-0972869256
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #708,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "All right, Ben. Attend me.", January 25, 2005

By	G Smith "stupid middle age white guy" (the library) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"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"