You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin

by Rachel Corbett

Overview

Winner of the 2016 Marfield Prize

In 1902, Rainer Maria Rilke—then a struggling poet in Germany—went to Paris to research and write a short book about the sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two were almost polar opposites: Rilke in his twenties, delicate and unknown; Rodin in his sixties, carnal and revered. Yet they fell into an instantaneous friendship. Transporting readers to early twentieth-century Paris, Rachel Corbett’s You Must Change Your Life is a vibrant portrait of Rilke and Rodin and their circle, revealing how deeply Rodin’s ideas about art and creativity influenced Rilke’s classic Letters to a Young Poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393354928
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	452,346
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Rachel Corbett is the editor in chief of Modern Painters. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Art Newspaper, New York magazine, and others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Rachel Corbett has written an elegant and moving account of what was a cultural turning point, seen through the eyes of two very different artists."

Luke Barr

"This empathetic and imaginative biography, deeply researched, is anchored by the friendship between [Rilke and Rodin]."

The New Yorker

"Spectacular. . . . A layered and lyrical inquiry into the personal, interpersonal, and cultural forces behind and around Rainer Maria Rilke’s iconic Letters to a Young Poet."

Brainpickings - Maria Popova

"In honeyed, knowing prose, Rachel Corbett twines two great serpents of art: the suppleness of Rodin’s malleable flesh and eroticism and Rilke’s endless lyrical rivers. New portals of aesthetic intonations open; invisible elements come into sight."

Jerry Saltz

"Much more than the story of Rilke as a young man serving as the personal secretary and confidante to Rodin. Laced with first-and second-hand accounts of the artists and their milieu, You Must Change Your Life is an examination of the gritty how and why of artistic creation, as well as an acknowledgement of the costs of such a life."

Brooklyn Rail - Sarah Roffino

05/30/2016
First-time author Corbett traces the lives of two great artists, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and sculptor Auguste Rodin, in a smartly written biography. Corbett begins, somewhat shakily, by sketching in Rilke and Rodin’s lives before their meeting. Despite these two mini-biographies being roughly equal in length, the Rodin piece feel rushed and the Rilke piece feels drawn out. When they do meet, the book kicks into gear. Corbett skillfully tracks Rilke’s process of finding his artistic voice, and by the time of Rilke and Rodin’s famous split, though it’s clear that both could be rather unpleasant people, the reader fully sympathizes with their pain over their estrangement. The pair’s eventual reconciliation is thus all the more satisfying. Also of note are the book’s glimpses of the figures in orbit around Rodin and Rilke’s story, including George Bernard Shaw, Jean Cocteau, and Paul Cézanne, as well as Louise Andreas-Salomé, a poet who was Rilke’s lover and muse, and Clara Westhoff, a student of Rodin’s who eventually married Rilke. Rilke and Rodin, both intriguing figures in their own right, are only the more fascinating when treated together as fellow artists and close friends. Agent: Larry Weissman, Larry Weissman Literary LLC. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A riveting narrative. . . . Corbett writes sharp prose that gets to the point."

Hyperallergic - Daniel Larkin

"Rachel Corbett, as any fine artist, has produced a work of great effect, and leaves a lasting and indelible mark on the reader."

NPR

"Takes readers deep into the literary and art worlds of the beginning of the 20th century. . . . A must-read."

Observer - Alanna Martinez

"Charming and funny, Rachel Corbett renders turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris in all its gritty glory, illustrating how the same place that saw ‘Baudelaire charge through the streets waving a gun and Balzac nearly starve to death’ could foster a magical artistic relationship like this one."

Ada Calhoun. author of St. Marks Is Dead

★ 07/01/2016
A quick glance at the title suggests a self-help book, but the words are actually taken from the poem "Archaïscher Torso Apollos," part of a collection Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) dedicated to sculptor August Rodin (1840–1917). Journalist Corbett presents the story of how, despite a 35-year age difference, the sculptor and poet developed a relationship that began in 1902 as a mentorship and evolved into a complicated friendship fraught with disagreements and reconciliations. Rilke served as Rodin's secretary, and what he learned about art from his employer influenced how he subsequently wrote (such as the Apollo poem). This biography describes their early years, their struggles for acceptance, their liaisons with various women, and their creative connection to Paris. Corbett also presents the world in which the pair lived, fin-de-siècle and early 20th-century Paris. She depicts intellectual and social scenes where an eclectic group of individuals could be found, including writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, artist Paul Cézanne, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, and dancer Isadora Duncan. The book includes personal letters and documents from the Rilke family archives as sources. VERDICT A riveting study of friendship, this well-researched biography will attract a variety of readers, especially art history and German literature enthusiasts.—Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Library Journal

2016-06-22
An exploration of "two artists fumbling through the desultory streets of Paris, finding their paths to mastery."In 1902, living near the artist colony in Worpswede, Germany, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) and his wife, Clara Westhoff, had a new child when Rilke received a commission to write a monograph on Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Rilke left his family and traveled to Paris to meet the man for whose art he had a near-religious devotion. In Rodin, he expected to find a muse, a master, and a savior. He asked, "how should one live?" When Rodin replied, "work, always work," Rilke took it as gospel, leading a mostly solitary life and devoting himself to his poetry. He sacrificed his family for his art; never mind that his wife was a talented sculptor. Rodin and Rilke established an immediate rapport, and the artist extended an open invitation to the poet. It was not an easy trek, but the monograph turned out to be a wonderful philosophy of creativity. Art Newspaper correspondent Corbett's deep knowledge of her subjects accessibly reveals the strong connections—and various differences—between the two men. Rodin never questioned why he was an artist, unlike the metaphysical Rilke. Rodin's influence on Rilke drove him to seek the maturity he was lacking for his craft. Rilke learned to empathize with inanimate objects and to appreciate abstractions, making his poetry sculpturally composed. Rilke also became Rodin's secretary, living in the artist's home until Rodin overreacted to what perhaps was only an overstep by Rilke in responding to a patron's letter. Rodin fired him on the spot, and the two didn't speak for months. That period was just what Rilke needed, as he realized that Rodin cast a diminishing shadow and that "art too is only a living." For lovers of poetry and art, an excellent look at two men of incredible talent—and how they handled it.

Kirkus Reviews