Two Stories of Prague: King Bohush the Siblings / Edition 1

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Angela Esterhammer

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."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874517897
Publisher:	University Press of New England
Publication date:	11/01/1996
Edition description:	Trans. from the German
Pages:	151
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

ANGELA ESTERHAMMER is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at University of Western Ontario. She is author of Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and William Blake (1994).

What People are Saying About This

Peter Demetz

“Two Stories of Prague comes at an opportune moment. New developments in Central Europe . . . [prompt one] to look anew at the historical relationships between the nations, and Rilke's early work again reemerges as an illuminating plea for mutual understanding and sympathy.”

Steven Scher

“Esterhammer shows that in these early, satirically colored narratives Rilke is no timeless aesthete but rather an astute and critical observer . . . These two stories contribute to our understanding of the young Rilke ‘in transition,’ on the way to becoming the great poet we continue to read and admire.”

Editorial Reviews

One of the 20th century's most exquisite poets, Rilke also experimented with prose. The two stories included here are set in Prague, where Rilke was born and raised, and reflect the tensions between the German nationals living there and the Czech-speaking majority . . . They are important for their insight into the development of Rilke's writing. For students of German literature, Esterhammer's excellent introduction is worth the price of the book.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

These two tales, here translated into English for the first time, reveal a little-known aspect of the celebrated German poet, who was born and educated in Prague and profoundly influenced by his years there. The stories depict the ethnic struggle between the Germans and the Czechs that riveted that city during the 1890s. ``King Bohush,'' inspired by an actual murder, examines Czech intellectual life of the period. Bohush is a simple-minded hunchback who naively meets with a group of artists and writers at the local cafe to espouse a radical form of Czech nationalism. He confides an innocent secret to a brooding revolutionary named Rezek, who, when other members of the group are arrested, murders Bohush for supposedly betraying their cause. ``The Siblings,'' a more disturbing but less cohesive tale, explores Rezek's subsequent malign effects on an unsophisticated brother and sister, symbols of the two sides of Bohemian culture. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

One of the 20th century's most exquisite poets, noted especially for the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus , Rilke also experimented with prose. The two stories included here are set in Prague, where Rilke was born and raised, and reflect the tensions between the German nationals living there and the Czech-speaking majority. ``King Bohush'' is the poignant tale of a hunchback ultimately murdered because he is suspected of betraying the incipient nationalist cause; ``The Siblings'' concerns a young Czech girl who loses her brother and then her mother when the family moves to Prague and yet manages to survive and even flourish. These stories are not altogether interesting in themselves--Rilke's forte is clearly lyric description, not narrative, and in any case these slightly wooden tales are a young man's work--but they are important for their insight into the development of Rilke's writing. For students of German literature, Esterhammer's excellent introduction is worth the price of the book. Primarily for academic libraries.-- Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal''

Library Journal