Reviews

This was a difficult real. For me mainly because Rilke is always referring to people I don;t know much about, often political, sometimes artistic.
Also the work is very fragmented, which obviously is part of the point, but it doesn't make it any easier to read.
Apart from that though Rilke had some really interesting philosophical ideas and I found myself spending so much time rereading sentences because of their sheer beauty. Some amazing prose in there. I could tell why he's known mostly for his poetry!
Shame it's his only novel really. I would have been interested to read more. But this is one of those books you can reread a million times, although it does need patience to get through, and every time find something new and understand it a little bit better than you did the last time you read it.

Minus one star just for the struggle.

hans_castorp's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

malu's review against another edition

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I will probably restart it sometime later.

lig's review against another edition

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4.0

"And so, when I returned to Ulsgaard and saw all the books, I pounced on them in a real hurry and with an almost bad conscience. At that time I somehow had a presentiment, which I so often felt later on, that we didn't have the right to open a book if we weren't committed to reading all of them. With every line you broke off a piece of the world. Before books the world was unharmed and perhaps in time it would be whole again. But how could I, unable to read, be a match for them all? There they stood, in such a hopeless bulk even in that modest library. Defiant and desperate I flung myself from book to book and fought my way through the pages like one who has to carry out a task that's too big for him. During that time I read Schiller and Baggesen, Ohlenschlager and Schack-Staf f eldt , whatever I could find by Walter Scott and Calderon. Many a book that came into my hands were ones that, one might say, I should have read already, while for other ones it was still too early; there was almost nothing contemporary. And I read on regardless."

From the William Needham translation.

1ncubus's review against another edition

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dark reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Es ist ein seltsames Schuldgefühl in meiner Brust, als hätte ich verbotenerweise in das Herz eines Menschen geschaut und all seine Geheimnisse gesehen, ohne sie erkannt zu haben. Als hätte er sein Herz kurz geöffnet und in der Eile vergessen zu schließen, und als hätte ich zufällig sein Inneres gesehen, Bruchstücke nur, aber doch das Ganze. Und es ist ein Spiegel meiner tiefen Ängste gewesen darin, ganz nah, und gleichzeitig ganz fern von mir, in einer anderen Welt. Und nichts davon kam mir bekannt vor, aber dann kam mir alles recht bekannt vor, und ich habe nichts verstanden davon. So war es.

Es liest sich ähnlich wie Der Ekel von Sartre, nicht gut also. Man liest lange daran und man kann soviel Brot auf einmal nicht kauen, wie Rilke einem in jeder Passage serviert, und vieles bleibt liegen oder wird undurchkaut in großen Stücken hinuntergewürgt. Bei diesem Werk muss man es machen wie die wiederkäuenden Giraffen. Das Gelesene immer wieder lesen, und neu verstehen und neu interpretieren.

Unverständliches, welches nicht anders kann, als unverständlich zu sein, da es seine Natur ist.

naddy's review against another edition

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3.0

OK??

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