Two Stories of Prague: King Bohush the Siblings

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Book Overview

Two Stories of Prague signifies the maturation of a poet and of a people. Although most readers know Rilke as a mature, cosmopolitan poet, here we can discern a young writer self-consciously exploring his development as a man and his emergence as an artist. Angela Esterhammer writes that in symbolic, stylistic, and biographical terms these stories record the process by which Rilke fashions himself into an independent, empowered individual.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874517893
• ISBN13: 9780874517897
• Release Date: February 1994
• Publisher: University Press of New England
• Length: 151 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Atmospheric, lyrical early stories

These two stories are lovely, and a bit different from the Rilke works to which we English-speakers are exposed. They are very interesting for those enchanted with Prague, as Rilke mentions many landmarks within the city (buildings, graveyards, and such that still exist), and the translator does a very nice job footnoting all the locations mentioned. Both these stories deal with the relationship between the Germans and the Czechs in Prague when Rilke lived there, which is fascinating, since this is no longer the situation at present. The stories are both romantic, but > is the better one, being a more convincing picture of reality and less muddled.