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Ed's Reviews > The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
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Upon reading The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge one is left haunted by the wonderfully poetic prose, but in possession of only a vague notion of what the book was about. Through a series of disjointed vignettes, Rilke opens a window into the soul of his protagonist, but the view is as from a moving vehicle: the scenery is constantly changing, and one can only glimpse at the detail.
The Notebooks blend the mythic with the mundane, combining obscure ancient tales and anecdotes about everyday life, in a manner that appears haphazard, but which taken together produce a complex portrait of Rilke himself: expressing the accumulated aspirations and anxieties of the young poet in a foreign land. He is concerned with history (both his own and that of the world) as a power to influence and to motivate, but also as baggage; a force to be fought and overcome. Above all he is concerned with death, not as an end, but as a thing intertwined with life itself - a surrealism that emphasizes a powerful truth.
What a strange and beautiful novel.
The Notebooks blend the mythic with the mundane, combining obscure ancient tales and anecdotes about everyday life, in a manner that appears haphazard, but which taken together produce a complex portrait of Rilke himself: expressing the accumulated aspirations and anxieties of the young poet in a foreign land. He is concerned with history (both his own and that of the world) as a power to influence and to motivate, but also as baggage; a force to be fought and overcome. Above all he is concerned with death, not as an end, but as a thing intertwined with life itself - a surrealism that emphasizes a powerful truth.
What a strange and beautiful novel.
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Reading Progress
January 21, 2016
– Shelved
September 28, 2016
–
Started Reading
October 2, 2016
–
Finished Reading
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A perfect gist of Rilke's silken mettle, this review is. Splendid write-up, Edward!
Dolors wrote: ""Rilke opens a window into the soul of his protagonist, but the view is as from a moving vehicle: the scenery is constantly changing, and one can only glimpse at the detail."Interesting! Funny tha..."
It's an interesting comparison, Dolors. The two do fall into a similar "class" of novels, and yet they are very different. Both are equally abstract and open to interpretation, but The Notebooks is a more serious exploration - it is thematically heavy. Whereas The Plains is very whimsical; it creates a mood and a sense of a people and a place outside of reality. Perhaps this contrast is a good example of some of the essential differences between modernism (The Notebooks) and post-modernism (The Plains).
Personally, I found The Notebooks a more enjoyable reading experience than the Plains (which was really quite frustrating and a bit of a grind). Although it is still abstract, the Notebooks is grounded in reality, filled with superbly-researched historical allusions, and the vignettes are enjoyable on their own, almost like poignant and powerful short stories. The Plains on the other hand is completely fantastical does not have the same kind of specificity and relevance - I found little to grab onto besides the prose iteself.
Anyway these are my thoughts; I will be interested to see what you think when you finish The Plains.
Seemita wrote: "A perfect gist of Rilke's silken mettle, this review is. Splendid write-up, Edward!"Thank you Seemita. Reading over my review, I notice it is only six sentences long - for its length it took me an inordinate amount of time to write. This is such a varied and elusive book; it's so difficult distill its content, or really to say anything meaningful about it in a general way.
Edward wrote: "The Plains on the other hand is completely fantastical does not have the same kind of specificity and relevance - I found little to grab onto besides the prose iteself.."My biggest issue with "The Plains" is that I am trying to make some sense of the eluvise colors of this "anti-Australian" landscape -which I take to be an allegory for Murnane's ideologies. His prose seems to circle down to a very essential concept that I still haven't managed to grasp, but maybe I just need to enjoy the ride and make my own interpretation of this abstract painting...
You will probably enjoy this book. This is recorded by the friend of Rilke, a noble Princess who lived in the Duino Castle, where Rilke visited her and where he received the inspiration to write the Duino Elegies.The Poet and The Princess: Memories of Rainer Maria Rilke
Interesting! Funny that Murnane seems to do exactly the opposite -making all essence converge into a static image- in The Plains, of which I am trying to make heads or tails at the moment.