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You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin
The extraordinary story of one of the most fruitful friendships in modern arts and letters.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. It has sold millions of copies and inspired generations with its galvanizing wisdom on how to lead an artistic life. In You Must Change Your Life, debut author Rachel Corbett tells the remarkable, long-buried story of where Rilke’s ideas originated.
In 1902, Rilke, broke and suffering from writer’s block, accepted a commission to go to Paris to research and write a short book about the sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two were almost polar opposites: Rodin in his sixties, notoriously carnal, revered; Rilke in his twenties, delicate, unknown. Nonetheless, they fell into an instantaneous friendship and would work closely together as master and disciple for the next few years, as Rodin showed Rilke how to become the writer he wished to be.
With verve and great insight, Corbett transports readers to turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris to explore this surprising friendship and the development of their influential ideas about art and creativity. She captures the dawn of modernism with appearances by such charismatic figures as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean Cocteau, as well as the rise of the concept of “empathy” amid the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Georg Simmel. Corbett also introduces the women in these men’s lives, many of them esteemed writers and artists in their own right: Rodin’s muse Camille Claudel, Rilke’s wife and fellow artist Clara Westhoff, and the remarkable Lou Andreas-Salome, who was Nietzsche’s lover and Rilke’s lifelong friend.
You Must Change Your Life is a vibrant portrait of Rilke and Rodin’s singular friendship, heartbreaking rift, and moving reconciliation, and it is a testament to the ways their work continues to reverberate to this day.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet is one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. It has sold millions of copies and inspired generations with its galvanizing wisdom on how to lead an artistic life. In You Must Change Your Life, debut author Rachel Corbett tells the remarkable, long-buried story of where Rilke’s ideas originated.
In 1902, Rilke, broke and suffering from writer’s block, accepted a commission to go to Paris to research and write a short book about the sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two were almost polar opposites: Rodin in his sixties, notoriously carnal, revered; Rilke in his twenties, delicate, unknown. Nonetheless, they fell into an instantaneous friendship and would work closely together as master and disciple for the next few years, as Rodin showed Rilke how to become the writer he wished to be.
With verve and great insight, Corbett transports readers to turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris to explore this surprising friendship and the development of their influential ideas about art and creativity. She captures the dawn of modernism with appearances by such charismatic figures as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan, George Bernard Shaw, and Jean Cocteau, as well as the rise of the concept of “empathy” amid the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Georg Simmel. Corbett also introduces the women in these men’s lives, many of them esteemed writers and artists in their own right: Rodin’s muse Camille Claudel, Rilke’s wife and fellow artist Clara Westhoff, and the remarkable Lou Andreas-Salome, who was Nietzsche’s lover and Rilke’s lifelong friend.
You Must Change Your Life is a vibrant portrait of Rilke and Rodin’s singular friendship, heartbreaking rift, and moving reconciliation, and it is a testament to the ways their work continues to reverberate to this day.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
197 people are currently reading
3167 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Corbett
5 books71 followersRachel Corbett is the author of "The Monsters We Make" and "You Must Change Your Life," which won the 2016 Marfield Prize, the National Award for Art Writing. She is a features writer at New York Magazine and has previously written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and other publications. She lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews
February 6, 2017
Knowing Rilke first through his poetry is odd, in that it is his most intensely intimate side. He almost does not seem human, but like one of his angels, outside of time and the physical realm. This book shed light on that physical realm: his actual likeness, his long coming of age, as well as on Rodin, his mentor. And for him, how Rodin was this almost godlike figure, representing Art.
Though the two men worked in different mediums and had entirely different tendencies, one earthy and visceral, the other ethereal and metaphysical, they seemed to have a great relationship. For Rilke, especially, I think the mentorship helped him find his way precisely because Rodin was so grounding. He needed a tether.
Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, these men are very much men with all their imperfections. There are passages that had me cracking up or wincing in pain because I related so much to their odd quirks. Young Rilke's fanboyishness and naivety. His utter earnestness and sincerity in the face of a cold world. And Rodin's unlikely rise in the art world, and his painful demise as increasingly he became an embarassment to his earlier ideals.
It's like seeing a cat slip and fall, it's not something you expect. But there is so much of that here, so much human striving within all its doubts and mysteries, that yes only the greatness ended up in the art, but the struggle to get there is so real. I loved seeing that behind the scenes shit.
Many famous names crop up. Freud, Matisse, Tolstoy. And women too, smart and brilliant women, though (sadly) most of them fell into the same fate: motherhood, domesticity, and responsibilities so that the men could pursue their dreams. Rilke looked up to so many women, and truly wanted them to succeed as artists, and yet he was not willing to give up any of his own freedom (like taking care of his daughter) in order for that to happen.
You must change your life, Rilke says, but Rilke did not just do that once. It seemed like his entire life was one long striving to go deeper, to seek and to experience and become more human, to turn and turn and turn within himself so that he can see and be seen.
Though the two men worked in different mediums and had entirely different tendencies, one earthy and visceral, the other ethereal and metaphysical, they seemed to have a great relationship. For Rilke, especially, I think the mentorship helped him find his way precisely because Rodin was so grounding. He needed a tether.
Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, these men are very much men with all their imperfections. There are passages that had me cracking up or wincing in pain because I related so much to their odd quirks. Young Rilke's fanboyishness and naivety. His utter earnestness and sincerity in the face of a cold world. And Rodin's unlikely rise in the art world, and his painful demise as increasingly he became an embarassment to his earlier ideals.
It's like seeing a cat slip and fall, it's not something you expect. But there is so much of that here, so much human striving within all its doubts and mysteries, that yes only the greatness ended up in the art, but the struggle to get there is so real. I loved seeing that behind the scenes shit.
Many famous names crop up. Freud, Matisse, Tolstoy. And women too, smart and brilliant women, though (sadly) most of them fell into the same fate: motherhood, domesticity, and responsibilities so that the men could pursue their dreams. Rilke looked up to so many women, and truly wanted them to succeed as artists, and yet he was not willing to give up any of his own freedom (like taking care of his daughter) in order for that to happen.
You must change your life, Rilke says, but Rilke did not just do that once. It seemed like his entire life was one long striving to go deeper, to seek and to experience and become more human, to turn and turn and turn within himself so that he can see and be seen.
January 29, 2023
I placed this dual-biography on my TBR list a few years ago and wondered if I would ever make time to read it. But there is a right time for everything. I bought a paperback edition several months ago and during a lull in the steady stream of library book holds, I fell into this exceptional portrait of two of my favorite artists.
The initial spark for me was curiosity: I didn't know that the Bohemian writer and the French sculptor were friends. In fact, I knew next to nothing of Rilke's life—just his dreamy poetry and his endlessly quotable Letters to a Young Poet. Because of my experiences living in France, I was more familiar with Rodin, the taciturn and difficult man who seemed to exemplify every cliché about famous French artists: a womanizer and a genius, obsessed with his craft and his legacy.
These two men formed an unlikely bond. They were separated by language — Rodin spoke only French; Rilke was a native German speaker; by age — Rodin was Rilke's senior by 35 years; and by temperament. Rodin was a proud Gaul and gruff workaholic who wasted little time on self-reflection and chatter. Rilke was a navel-gazing intellectual who flitted from Germany to France to Italy, chasing a muse and fleeing his domestic responsibilities.
To call them friends, at least initially, is a bit of a stretch. In 1902, Rilke was commissioned to produce a monograph of Rodin. Rilke still was a struggling young writer; Rodin already a lion of French culture. Rilke left the artists' colony in Germany where he and his artist-wife, Clara Westhoff, were raising their infant daughter, and relocated to Paris. Rilke would live off and on in Paris for the rest of his too-short life. The city would draw him back time and again because it was the center of creative energy, the sun around which all stars of the arts revolved.
Rilke eventually became Rodin's secretary, managing an immense volume of correspondence until writing for Rodin consumed all of his time, overriding his own work. Rodin, deeply insular and jealous of attention paid to anyone but him, threw Rilke out after he discovered that Rilke had established separate correspondence with some of Rodin's benefactors. Their fractious relationship finally healed during the war years, not long before Rodin's death in 1917.
You Must Change Your Life is not just a portrait of a complicated relationship between two artists. It is an examination of artistic influence and of an influential city in transition. Not long before Rilke's birth in 1875 Paris was transformed from a medieval labyrinth dotted with Gothic behemoths into an industrial Mecca of wide streets, gas lamps and marauding bands of hooligans. This Paris first broke artistic convention with the wave of Impressionist painters; just a few decades later it shocked the world again as it embraced the fractured styles of Fauvism and Cubism.
It is also the story of an artist in the making: Rainer Maria Rilke, who defied his traditional Austrian family to become a writer. I struggled with my reaction to this portrayal of Rilke. A poet whose work I so revere was in fact a whining, insecure gadabout who abandoned his wife and child to pursue his own interests. He was clingy with lovers, a feckless husband, and dispensed artistic advice he himself scarcely followed. But to his credit, he used his insecurities to push himself to become a better writer and a more empathic human. In the final years of his life, he nurtured the creative efforts of the young son of his final romantic relationship. That young man became the celebrated French-Polish painter Balthus. And Rilke never wavered in his admiration for and support of Rodin; it was his monographs of Rodin that helped elevate a working class sculptor to a venerated symbol of Gallic art.
I read this dual biography intending to explore the difficult relationship between Rilke and Rodin as a potential path to a new novel. I found that path, but not in following the lives of its principal subjects. Rather, it was the women who played second fiddle to these men who captured my imagination: Clara Westhoff and her best friend Paula Becker in Germany and Camille Claudel in France. These artists defied convention and pushed through societal walls to pursue their art. Claudel paid the highest price: her doomed affair with Rodin overshadowed her own extraordinary work. She died in obscurity in an insane asylum. Westhoff and Becker were friends and artists before they met Rilke, and Westhoff would eventually marry him. It is their unconventional lives that fascinate me. I'm excited to see where this interest, and these women, take me next.
You Must Change Your Life is immersive, deeply researched and illuminating. Highly recommended.
The initial spark for me was curiosity: I didn't know that the Bohemian writer and the French sculptor were friends. In fact, I knew next to nothing of Rilke's life—just his dreamy poetry and his endlessly quotable Letters to a Young Poet. Because of my experiences living in France, I was more familiar with Rodin, the taciturn and difficult man who seemed to exemplify every cliché about famous French artists: a womanizer and a genius, obsessed with his craft and his legacy.
These two men formed an unlikely bond. They were separated by language — Rodin spoke only French; Rilke was a native German speaker; by age — Rodin was Rilke's senior by 35 years; and by temperament. Rodin was a proud Gaul and gruff workaholic who wasted little time on self-reflection and chatter. Rilke was a navel-gazing intellectual who flitted from Germany to France to Italy, chasing a muse and fleeing his domestic responsibilities.
To call them friends, at least initially, is a bit of a stretch. In 1902, Rilke was commissioned to produce a monograph of Rodin. Rilke still was a struggling young writer; Rodin already a lion of French culture. Rilke left the artists' colony in Germany where he and his artist-wife, Clara Westhoff, were raising their infant daughter, and relocated to Paris. Rilke would live off and on in Paris for the rest of his too-short life. The city would draw him back time and again because it was the center of creative energy, the sun around which all stars of the arts revolved.
Rilke eventually became Rodin's secretary, managing an immense volume of correspondence until writing for Rodin consumed all of his time, overriding his own work. Rodin, deeply insular and jealous of attention paid to anyone but him, threw Rilke out after he discovered that Rilke had established separate correspondence with some of Rodin's benefactors. Their fractious relationship finally healed during the war years, not long before Rodin's death in 1917.
You Must Change Your Life is not just a portrait of a complicated relationship between two artists. It is an examination of artistic influence and of an influential city in transition. Not long before Rilke's birth in 1875 Paris was transformed from a medieval labyrinth dotted with Gothic behemoths into an industrial Mecca of wide streets, gas lamps and marauding bands of hooligans. This Paris first broke artistic convention with the wave of Impressionist painters; just a few decades later it shocked the world again as it embraced the fractured styles of Fauvism and Cubism.
It is also the story of an artist in the making: Rainer Maria Rilke, who defied his traditional Austrian family to become a writer. I struggled with my reaction to this portrayal of Rilke. A poet whose work I so revere was in fact a whining, insecure gadabout who abandoned his wife and child to pursue his own interests. He was clingy with lovers, a feckless husband, and dispensed artistic advice he himself scarcely followed. But to his credit, he used his insecurities to push himself to become a better writer and a more empathic human. In the final years of his life, he nurtured the creative efforts of the young son of his final romantic relationship. That young man became the celebrated French-Polish painter Balthus. And Rilke never wavered in his admiration for and support of Rodin; it was his monographs of Rodin that helped elevate a working class sculptor to a venerated symbol of Gallic art.
I read this dual biography intending to explore the difficult relationship between Rilke and Rodin as a potential path to a new novel. I found that path, but not in following the lives of its principal subjects. Rather, it was the women who played second fiddle to these men who captured my imagination: Clara Westhoff and her best friend Paula Becker in Germany and Camille Claudel in France. These artists defied convention and pushed through societal walls to pursue their art. Claudel paid the highest price: her doomed affair with Rodin overshadowed her own extraordinary work. She died in obscurity in an insane asylum. Westhoff and Becker were friends and artists before they met Rilke, and Westhoff would eventually marry him. It is their unconventional lives that fascinate me. I'm excited to see where this interest, and these women, take me next.
You Must Change Your Life is immersive, deeply researched and illuminating. Highly recommended.
February 19, 2018
This book was mildly interesting, in a gossipy sort of way. But Corbett's 'honeyed prose' (from a dustjacket blurb) aroused a persistent feeling that I was taken for a ride by an author who wanted to spin a good yarn at all costs. This feeling of suspicion was reinforced by the fact that the story hardly seemed to resonate with Wolfgang Leppmann's classic but more soberly narrated Rilke biography which I read only a year ago. In addition in 'You Must Change Your Life' there are inaccuracies and overstatements that left me wondering about the seriousness of it all (just to give two examples: Nietzsche didn't write his 'Zarathustra' in ten days, but only the first of four parts (p. 25); it's unlikely that Rilke, as Rodin's secretary, wrote 'hundreds of letters' in a single day (p. 136)). Furthermore, there is very little meat on the bone in terms of critical and aesthetic assessment of Rilke's work. Corbett curiously relies on the notion of empathy and related turn-of-the-century psychological lore as a motto theme to shed light on the deeper layers of Rilke's poetic inspiration but I feel she overstretches her case. Partly as a result of the author's failure to make Rilke's poetic project intelligible, the poet as a man doesn't really come to life (Rodin, in almost caricatural way, fares better in this regard). Second-line personalities - including Rilke's wife Clara Westhoff, his friend Paula Becker and his muse Lou Salomé - remain even more one-dimensional. All in all, the book didn't convince me as a serious artist biography.
August 1, 2018
For fans of Rilke, for lovers of poetry, for artists and spectators of art, for those who constantly question the meaning of life, this book is for you.
September 27, 2024
DİKİŞÇİ KADIN
Heykeli gerektirecek bir yaşantı sürmedim sürmüyorum. Açıkcası heykel de görmedim. Sen gördün mü? Heykel? Hayır hayır o anlattıkların devlet heykeli, ben sanat heykelinden bahsediyorum. Ya sen gördün mü? Memlekette heykelden bol ne var diyorsun, bir tanesi karşımda duruyor diyorsun, beni gösteriyorsun. Çok ayıp! Resmen utandırdın beni. Evraklarına varana dek sahtesin utanmıyorsun da heykelliğinden mi utanıyorsun diyorsun. Hadi öyle olsun! Geçelim. Camile Claude filmini de zamanında seyretmesem dahi heykeltıraş August Rodin ismini bilmeyecektim. Bayılmıştım filme. İsabet Adjani'nin oyunculuğu muhteşemdi, özellikle sinir krizi geçirdiği sahnede zirve yapar. Neyse. Ne diyordum ben! Kayboldum. Gel bu tarafa sersem. Şiiri gerektirecek bir yaşantım olmadı. Şiir gördüğümden bile emin değilim. Hafızamı zorladığımda evet bunu diyebiliyorum, şiir görmedim. Devlet şiirinden (okul/aşk şiirinden) bahsetmiyorum. Stefan Zweig'in Dünün Dünyası'nı okumasam büyük şair Rainer Maria Rilke ismini de bileceğim yoktu. Şuraya geliyorum: Heykel ve şiir sanatının dışında ilgisiz duran bir okur olarak beni Rachel Corbett bu iki sanatın ortamlarını Rodin, Rilke üzerinden anlattığı Hayatını Değiştirmelisin kitabına dahil edip tutabiliyorsa bu iş bitmiştir, fazla söze gerek yoktur, kitap amacına ulaşmış başarmıştır. Daha iyi olabilir miydi? Tabii ki, çünkü anlamını vermeyen cümleler lafı edilecek kadar vardı. Yazım tarzı çeviriyi zorluyordu. Fakat kitabın ışığı metnin arızalarını örttüyor. Hayatını Değiştirmelisin bir ilişki biyografisi; sonu hayal kırıklığıyla biten Rodin-Rilke ilişkisini anlatıyor. Rachel Corbett dostluğun biyografisini anlatırken iki sanatçının hayatındaki kadınları ve dönem atmosferini de 'konuyu ilgilendiren' kadarıyla işliyor. Rilke'nin karısı Clara Westhoff, arkadaşı Andreas Salome ve son yıllarındaki aşkı ressam Baladine Klossowska'yı okuyoruz. Rodin tarafında ise Camile Claude aşkı var ama bu ilişkiyi neredeyse okuyamıyoruz, Claude akıl hastanesine yatırılıyor; poz veren model kadınlar, Amerikalı düşeş ve elli üç yıllık arkadaşı Rose Beuret'i okuyoruz. Beuret'tede biraz duralım: Çok çok ilginç! Bu kadın gölgede değil epeyce bir karanlıkta kalmış kitapta. Belki de donunu yıkayacak kadar Rodin'e tam elli üç yıl hayat arkadaşlığı yapmış Rose Beuret'inin bahsi kitapta üç beş yerde geçiyor. Başta Amerikalı düşeş olmak üzere sayısını kimsenin bilmediği kadınla Rodin köşkte aşk yaşarken Beuret salonda şöminenin karşısına oturmuş yanan odunların çıtırdısını dinliyordu. Tam elli üç yıl. Entari mi bu kadın bahsi geçmiyor. Rachel Corbett'in Beuret'e gıcık olduğunu sanmıyorum. Biyografiyi tercihlerinize göre değil belgelerle yazabilirsiniz. Corbett'in Beuret hakkında tek bir cümle kaynak bulamadığını anlamak için Beuret ismini Google'la yazmak yeterli. Dikişçi kadın diyor. Başka bilgi yok. Bu kadar. Rodin gibi bir adamla onca yıl karısı olmadan nasıl yaşamış. Sırrı ne? Öyle ki, ölümünü beklediği hastalığında "ölümden korkmuyorum. Rodin yalnız kalacak. Korktuğum bu" diyor. Beuret'i vaz geçilmez kılan neydi? Rodin'in onca aşk maceralarına rağmen Beuret'i orada tutan neydi? Müthiş bir ruh! Tam elli üç yıl. Rodin-Rilke ilişkisi sanayi devriminin bunalımlarına denk geliyor. Makineler üretimi atölyelerden çıkarıp fabrikalaştırıyor. İşsizlik katlanıyor. Açlık şu bu derken tür tür hastalık ortaya çıkıyor. Paris hastanelerle dolup taşıyor. Hastane dediğin hasta diye bellenenlerin tıkıldığı bir tür ahır. Çoğu hastalık tanımlanmamış, tedavisi yok, bu ahırlarla toplumu hastalardan koruyorlar. Avrupa iyice gevezeleşiyor. Entelektüeller, felsefeciler, doktorlar hakikatı arıyor. Ouvv ortalık toz duman! Her kafadan bir ses. Tez üzerine tezler. İnsan şöyle de böyle. Odipal kompleks de, libido da, empati de, halkların özgürlüğü de, diyalektik de, aslında sevgi şudur da budur da... Hakikati zihinde ya da zihinle aramanın aslında bir akıl hastalığı olduğu henüz bilinmediği yıllar. İşte bu deliliğin ortamında hayatta kalmaya çalışan Rodin ve Rilke'nin yıllandıkça bozulan dostluğunun hikayesini okuyoruz Hayatını Değiştirmelisin'de.
Heykeli gerektirecek bir yaşantı sürmedim sürmüyorum. Açıkcası heykel de görmedim. Sen gördün mü? Heykel? Hayır hayır o anlattıkların devlet heykeli, ben sanat heykelinden bahsediyorum. Ya sen gördün mü? Memlekette heykelden bol ne var diyorsun, bir tanesi karşımda duruyor diyorsun, beni gösteriyorsun. Çok ayıp! Resmen utandırdın beni. Evraklarına varana dek sahtesin utanmıyorsun da heykelliğinden mi utanıyorsun diyorsun. Hadi öyle olsun! Geçelim. Camile Claude filmini de zamanında seyretmesem dahi heykeltıraş August Rodin ismini bilmeyecektim. Bayılmıştım filme. İsabet Adjani'nin oyunculuğu muhteşemdi, özellikle sinir krizi geçirdiği sahnede zirve yapar. Neyse. Ne diyordum ben! Kayboldum. Gel bu tarafa sersem. Şiiri gerektirecek bir yaşantım olmadı. Şiir gördüğümden bile emin değilim. Hafızamı zorladığımda evet bunu diyebiliyorum, şiir görmedim. Devlet şiirinden (okul/aşk şiirinden) bahsetmiyorum. Stefan Zweig'in Dünün Dünyası'nı okumasam büyük şair Rainer Maria Rilke ismini de bileceğim yoktu. Şuraya geliyorum: Heykel ve şiir sanatının dışında ilgisiz duran bir okur olarak beni Rachel Corbett bu iki sanatın ortamlarını Rodin, Rilke üzerinden anlattığı Hayatını Değiştirmelisin kitabına dahil edip tutabiliyorsa bu iş bitmiştir, fazla söze gerek yoktur, kitap amacına ulaşmış başarmıştır. Daha iyi olabilir miydi? Tabii ki, çünkü anlamını vermeyen cümleler lafı edilecek kadar vardı. Yazım tarzı çeviriyi zorluyordu. Fakat kitabın ışığı metnin arızalarını örttüyor. Hayatını Değiştirmelisin bir ilişki biyografisi; sonu hayal kırıklığıyla biten Rodin-Rilke ilişkisini anlatıyor. Rachel Corbett dostluğun biyografisini anlatırken iki sanatçının hayatındaki kadınları ve dönem atmosferini de 'konuyu ilgilendiren' kadarıyla işliyor. Rilke'nin karısı Clara Westhoff, arkadaşı Andreas Salome ve son yıllarındaki aşkı ressam Baladine Klossowska'yı okuyoruz. Rodin tarafında ise Camile Claude aşkı var ama bu ilişkiyi neredeyse okuyamıyoruz, Claude akıl hastanesine yatırılıyor; poz veren model kadınlar, Amerikalı düşeş ve elli üç yıllık arkadaşı Rose Beuret'i okuyoruz. Beuret'tede biraz duralım: Çok çok ilginç! Bu kadın gölgede değil epeyce bir karanlıkta kalmış kitapta. Belki de donunu yıkayacak kadar Rodin'e tam elli üç yıl hayat arkadaşlığı yapmış Rose Beuret'inin bahsi kitapta üç beş yerde geçiyor. Başta Amerikalı düşeş olmak üzere sayısını kimsenin bilmediği kadınla Rodin köşkte aşk yaşarken Beuret salonda şöminenin karşısına oturmuş yanan odunların çıtırdısını dinliyordu. Tam elli üç yıl. Entari mi bu kadın bahsi geçmiyor. Rachel Corbett'in Beuret'e gıcık olduğunu sanmıyorum. Biyografiyi tercihlerinize göre değil belgelerle yazabilirsiniz. Corbett'in Beuret hakkında tek bir cümle kaynak bulamadığını anlamak için Beuret ismini Google'la yazmak yeterli. Dikişçi kadın diyor. Başka bilgi yok. Bu kadar. Rodin gibi bir adamla onca yıl karısı olmadan nasıl yaşamış. Sırrı ne? Öyle ki, ölümünü beklediği hastalığında "ölümden korkmuyorum. Rodin yalnız kalacak. Korktuğum bu" diyor. Beuret'i vaz geçilmez kılan neydi? Rodin'in onca aşk maceralarına rağmen Beuret'i orada tutan neydi? Müthiş bir ruh! Tam elli üç yıl. Rodin-Rilke ilişkisi sanayi devriminin bunalımlarına denk geliyor. Makineler üretimi atölyelerden çıkarıp fabrikalaştırıyor. İşsizlik katlanıyor. Açlık şu bu derken tür tür hastalık ortaya çıkıyor. Paris hastanelerle dolup taşıyor. Hastane dediğin hasta diye bellenenlerin tıkıldığı bir tür ahır. Çoğu hastalık tanımlanmamış, tedavisi yok, bu ahırlarla toplumu hastalardan koruyorlar. Avrupa iyice gevezeleşiyor. Entelektüeller, felsefeciler, doktorlar hakikatı arıyor. Ouvv ortalık toz duman! Her kafadan bir ses. Tez üzerine tezler. İnsan şöyle de böyle. Odipal kompleks de, libido da, empati de, halkların özgürlüğü de, diyalektik de, aslında sevgi şudur da budur da... Hakikati zihinde ya da zihinle aramanın aslında bir akıl hastalığı olduğu henüz bilinmediği yıllar. İşte bu deliliğin ortamında hayatta kalmaya çalışan Rodin ve Rilke'nin yıllandıkça bozulan dostluğunun hikayesini okuyoruz Hayatını Değiştirmelisin'de.
March 22, 2024
Dünyanın en büyük heykeltıraşlarından birinin,dünyanın en büyük şairlerinden birine akıl hocalığı yapacağını ve rehberlik edeceğini kim bilebilirdi ki.
Sanatsal vizyonlarındaki büyük farklılıklar göz önüne alındığında,bir ilişkileri olması bile şaşırtıcı iki insan.
‘Rodin altmışlı yaşlarında rasyonel bir Galli,Rilke yirmili yaşlarında Alman bir romantikti.Rodin bedensel ve duyumsaldı;Rilke metafiziksel ve tinsel.Rodin’in eserleri cehennemin içine dalarken,Rilke’ninkiler melekler aleminde yüzüyordu.Rodin bir dağsa,Rilke onu kuşatan bir sisti.’
Hem Rodin hem de Rilke sanat için yaşamışlardı,bunu aile,kişisel zevk ve konforun üzerinde bir öncelik olarak koydular.
Yazarın,Rilke ve Rodin’in kesinlikle inanılmaz derecede ayrıntılı ve bilgilendirici bir portresini yazmayı değil,aynı zamanda zamanlarını,sanat olaylarını,çevrelerindeki insanları nasıl etkilediklerini ve karşılığında nasıl etkilendiklerini de yazmayı başarmasına hayran kaldım.
Ve Paris’te olmak için nasıl bir dönem.Cezanne,Edgar Degas,Matisse,Oscar Wilde,Freud,Picasso,Nietzche,George Bernard Show,Lou Andreas-Salome,Thomas Mann,Zola…Sanat tarihi açısından muazzam ve zengin bir dönem.
‘Empati’ kelimesinin sözlüğe yeni girdiği ve insan deneyimini ve sanatın gücünü merak edenlere meydan okuduğu bir zaman.Etraflarındaki erkeklerin yararına,kadın varlığını ve arzusunu tüketme döneminin abartısız bir keşfi var.
Bu sanatçıların birbirlerine verdikleri ve aldıkları destek ağına büyük bir kişisel ıstırap içinde özgünlük ve empati arayışlarına hayranlık duydum.
Yazarın,Rodin ve Rilke’nin bir çok farklı yönünü,hem iyi hem de çok iyi olmayan bir çok farklı yönünü göstermeye çalışmasından keyif aldım.Bu,hem sanatçı hem de insan olarak yaşamlarına kapsamlı bir bakış açısı kazandırdı.Bir sanat ve tarih aşığı olarak bu sayfalardaki hikaye,bir zamana ve bir yaratıcılık kasırgasına yakalan insanlara derinlik katıyor. Özellikle sanatla ilgilenenler için şiddetle tavsiye ederim.
Sanatsal vizyonlarındaki büyük farklılıklar göz önüne alındığında,bir ilişkileri olması bile şaşırtıcı iki insan.
‘Rodin altmışlı yaşlarında rasyonel bir Galli,Rilke yirmili yaşlarında Alman bir romantikti.Rodin bedensel ve duyumsaldı;Rilke metafiziksel ve tinsel.Rodin’in eserleri cehennemin içine dalarken,Rilke’ninkiler melekler aleminde yüzüyordu.Rodin bir dağsa,Rilke onu kuşatan bir sisti.’
Hem Rodin hem de Rilke sanat için yaşamışlardı,bunu aile,kişisel zevk ve konforun üzerinde bir öncelik olarak koydular.
Yazarın,Rilke ve Rodin’in kesinlikle inanılmaz derecede ayrıntılı ve bilgilendirici bir portresini yazmayı değil,aynı zamanda zamanlarını,sanat olaylarını,çevrelerindeki insanları nasıl etkilediklerini ve karşılığında nasıl etkilendiklerini de yazmayı başarmasına hayran kaldım.
Ve Paris’te olmak için nasıl bir dönem.Cezanne,Edgar Degas,Matisse,Oscar Wilde,Freud,Picasso,Nietzche,George Bernard Show,Lou Andreas-Salome,Thomas Mann,Zola…Sanat tarihi açısından muazzam ve zengin bir dönem.
‘Empati’ kelimesinin sözlüğe yeni girdiği ve insan deneyimini ve sanatın gücünü merak edenlere meydan okuduğu bir zaman.Etraflarındaki erkeklerin yararına,kadın varlığını ve arzusunu tüketme döneminin abartısız bir keşfi var.
Bu sanatçıların birbirlerine verdikleri ve aldıkları destek ağına büyük bir kişisel ıstırap içinde özgünlük ve empati arayışlarına hayranlık duydum.
Yazarın,Rodin ve Rilke’nin bir çok farklı yönünü,hem iyi hem de çok iyi olmayan bir çok farklı yönünü göstermeye çalışmasından keyif aldım.Bu,hem sanatçı hem de insan olarak yaşamlarına kapsamlı bir bakış açısı kazandırdı.Bir sanat ve tarih aşığı olarak bu sayfalardaki hikaye,bir zamana ve bir yaratıcılık kasırgasına yakalan insanlara derinlik katıyor. Özellikle sanatla ilgilenenler için şiddetle tavsiye ederim.
August 24, 2016
I was excited to receive an ARC of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin by Rachel Corbett in the mail. I was clamouring to read it, entering give-a-ways and requesting it on Edelweiss, then it arrived unanounced in the mail. Thank you, W. W. Norton!
I was in my twenties and living in Philadelphia when browsing in a Center City bookstore I happened upon Letters to a Young Poet. Later I bought the Duino Elegies-which I read on vacation camping at Acadia National Park-and collected poems in several translations.
I first encountered Rodin in a high school art history class, learning about The Burghers of Calais. Later we visited the marvelous Rodin Museum in Philadelphia.
Corbett's book follows the lives of both poet and artist, concentrating on their friendship and how Rodin influenced Rilke's view of the artistic life and appreciation of art, in context of their contemporary society and artist communities.
As a young man Rilke traveled to visit his idols but it was Rodin who took him into his home and confidence.
The poet served as Rodin's personal secretary, living with him at Meudon. In a writing slump, Rodin directed Rilke to the zoo to observe the animals, altering the trajectory of his work culminating in his famous poem The Panther.
Rilke took to heart Rodin's admonition that the artist must dedicate their life to their art; seeking solitude Rilke abandoned his wife and child to fend for themselves.
Rilke wrote a monograph on Rodin in which he wrote, "and he labors incessantly. His life is like a single workday" in which "therein lay a kind of renunciation of life." Rilke stressed Rodin as "solitary": "Rodin was solitary before his fame"; he lived "in the country solitude of his dwelling"; he learned his craft "alone within itself" until "Finally, after years of solitary labor, he attempted to come out with one of his works." That work was rejected and he "locked himself away again for thirteen years."
Rilke's perception of the artist influenced his own artistic philosophy, evident in the letters he wrote to a young student, Franz Xaver Kappus, who published them in 1929 as Letters To A Young Poet. In the letters Rilke advises the aspiring poet that no outsider can affirm one's own artistic worth, that it must come from within. He tells Kappus to "look to Nature," the "little things that hardly anyone sees." Rilke praises solitude, "it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it."
Neither man was a paragon. Rodin lived with a commonlaw wife who had to tolerate his series of mistresses, including his art student Camille Claudel. He was sensitive and irascible and after nine months he threw Rilke out over a perceived breech of trust: in Rodin's absence Rilke had written a letter to a friend he'd introduced to Rodin, and Rodin had not approved his writing the letter.
The world in the early 20th c. was rapidly changing. Rodin's art became repetitive and was considered too representational. Rilke's work was in keeping with the new movements of Existentialism, Abstract Art, and Depth Psychology. Rilke's poetry continued to show growth during his brief 51 years, but Rodin, over twenty years older, in old age realized how serialized his work had become and felt the irony that only as he neared the end of his life did he realize the pupose of his work.
Toward the end of Rodin's life Rilke realized Rodin had failed to live up to his own advice, which Rilke had taken to heart: work, only work.
"You must change your life" is the last line in Rilke's poem Archaic Torso of Apollo which I first read translated by Stephen Mitchell. Rilke responds to a sculpture of the god Apollo, sans head, arms, and legs, but which still holds a transformative power so that "you must change your life" upon encountering it.
I received an ARC from W. W. Norton in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
I was in my twenties and living in Philadelphia when browsing in a Center City bookstore I happened upon Letters to a Young Poet. Later I bought the Duino Elegies-which I read on vacation camping at Acadia National Park-and collected poems in several translations.
I first encountered Rodin in a high school art history class, learning about The Burghers of Calais. Later we visited the marvelous Rodin Museum in Philadelphia.
Corbett's book follows the lives of both poet and artist, concentrating on their friendship and how Rodin influenced Rilke's view of the artistic life and appreciation of art, in context of their contemporary society and artist communities.
As a young man Rilke traveled to visit his idols but it was Rodin who took him into his home and confidence.
The poet served as Rodin's personal secretary, living with him at Meudon. In a writing slump, Rodin directed Rilke to the zoo to observe the animals, altering the trajectory of his work culminating in his famous poem The Panther.
Rilke took to heart Rodin's admonition that the artist must dedicate their life to their art; seeking solitude Rilke abandoned his wife and child to fend for themselves.
Rilke wrote a monograph on Rodin in which he wrote, "and he labors incessantly. His life is like a single workday" in which "therein lay a kind of renunciation of life." Rilke stressed Rodin as "solitary": "Rodin was solitary before his fame"; he lived "in the country solitude of his dwelling"; he learned his craft "alone within itself" until "Finally, after years of solitary labor, he attempted to come out with one of his works." That work was rejected and he "locked himself away again for thirteen years."
Rilke's perception of the artist influenced his own artistic philosophy, evident in the letters he wrote to a young student, Franz Xaver Kappus, who published them in 1929 as Letters To A Young Poet. In the letters Rilke advises the aspiring poet that no outsider can affirm one's own artistic worth, that it must come from within. He tells Kappus to "look to Nature," the "little things that hardly anyone sees." Rilke praises solitude, "it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it."
Neither man was a paragon. Rodin lived with a commonlaw wife who had to tolerate his series of mistresses, including his art student Camille Claudel. He was sensitive and irascible and after nine months he threw Rilke out over a perceived breech of trust: in Rodin's absence Rilke had written a letter to a friend he'd introduced to Rodin, and Rodin had not approved his writing the letter.
The world in the early 20th c. was rapidly changing. Rodin's art became repetitive and was considered too representational. Rilke's work was in keeping with the new movements of Existentialism, Abstract Art, and Depth Psychology. Rilke's poetry continued to show growth during his brief 51 years, but Rodin, over twenty years older, in old age realized how serialized his work had become and felt the irony that only as he neared the end of his life did he realize the pupose of his work.
Toward the end of Rodin's life Rilke realized Rodin had failed to live up to his own advice, which Rilke had taken to heart: work, only work.
"You must change your life" is the last line in Rilke's poem Archaic Torso of Apollo which I first read translated by Stephen Mitchell. Rilke responds to a sculpture of the god Apollo, sans head, arms, and legs, but which still holds a transformative power so that "you must change your life" upon encountering it.
I received an ARC from W. W. Norton in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
October 4, 2016
This was totally all-consuming. The storytelling and writing are exceptional. Corbett manages to write prose that supports, illuminates, and complements Rilke while also maintaining her own voice and controlling the narrative. Wonderful, perfect, A+. This is not just up my alley, this is literally everything my alley is made of.
It's also sent me headfirst into a dormant obsession with Rilke, and now I find myself thinking of him and reading his poetry nearly constantly. Sometimes I even have trouble falling asleep at night because I'm tossing and turning thinking about a poet who's been dead 90 years.
It's also sent me headfirst into a dormant obsession with Rilke, and now I find myself thinking of him and reading his poetry nearly constantly. Sometimes I even have trouble falling asleep at night because I'm tossing and turning thinking about a poet who's been dead 90 years.
April 17, 2020
Rachel Corbett is a good writer and this work offers plenty of insides in the relationship between Rilke and Rodin. Her writing is fluid and entertaining without bordering the superficial. There are some factual flaws. They all seam rooted in the fact that she is not all too familiar with European history as such and most likely a language barrier separated her from the non-English literature on the subject. This, however can be forgive for a first work by a young writer. All in all she especially excels when she leaves her core field, e.g. illustrating the influence of early psychology on Rilke's works or the influence Rilke had on Balthus.
December 21, 2025
Rilke ile yollarımız daha öncede kesişebilirdi ama nasip bu kitaba imiş . Rodin ve Rilke 'nin karşılıklı etkileşimleri ekseninde bir sürü tanıdık isimlerle ve onlarında bu döngüde katkılarıyla karşılaşmak ne zamandan beri yapmadığım bir okuma oldu .
Biyografi okumayı seven kişiler için önerebilirim.Bu sanat sepet tayfanin koloni halinde etkileşimli bir sekilde yaşaması , aralarındaki münasebetlerin her versiyonunu film izliyor etkisi de yapıyor .
Tabiki bu süreçte taraf tutmadan da yapamadım . Açıkçası beni Rodin çok cezbetmedi .Bu kitap bana Rilke 'yi hediye etti .
PS: Bunun yanı sıra bu hayat okumaları da bana evde stokladığım adı geçen yazarların kitaplarını okuma isteği veriyor .Umarım bu istek sönmeden bu sene bir kaç okuma yapabilirim ya da 2026 'da.
Biyografi okumayı seven kişiler için önerebilirim.Bu sanat sepet tayfanin koloni halinde etkileşimli bir sekilde yaşaması , aralarındaki münasebetlerin her versiyonunu film izliyor etkisi de yapıyor .
Tabiki bu süreçte taraf tutmadan da yapamadım . Açıkçası beni Rodin çok cezbetmedi .Bu kitap bana Rilke 'yi hediye etti .
PS: Bunun yanı sıra bu hayat okumaları da bana evde stokladığım adı geçen yazarların kitaplarını okuma isteği veriyor .Umarım bu istek sönmeden bu sene bir kaç okuma yapabilirim ya da 2026 'da.
February 19, 2023
Objektif olarak puanım 3 olur fakat yazarın Rodin'in Camille Claudel'in hayatına etkisini, sebep olduğu acıları ve trajediyi çok üstünkörü anlatması beni kızdırdı. Hatta Rodin'i aklayan bir tavır var. O yüzden puanım 1 yıldız.
October 18, 2016
Excellence
Heartfelt. The description of their lives touches you. In this book there is nowhere you don't see yourself. You must change your life, indeed.
Heartfelt. The description of their lives touches you. In this book there is nowhere you don't see yourself. You must change your life, indeed.
May 27, 2019
Four and five stars mean I want to keep a book. I don't want to keep this book.
I got this in great anticipation because I had loved Rilke in college and still enjoy his poetry from time to time. We had to translate his stuff from the German in German class. I loved it on so many levels! So when I saw a book about two artists I recognized, had enjoyed the art off, and was curious about, I eagerly waited until I could get the book for myself. I expected passionate artists imbibing on the joy of creativity.
But no; from the outset the mood of the book was darker than that. I would say it felt a bit like dismay, like drear upon the mind, and I sobered up quickly to wonder about both the author and the subjects.
As the book progressed I saw hints of the author's perspective, but more importantly, I saw her striving for a certain amount of neutrality. I always appreciate this in a book. There was also honesty, too.
The fact is, both of these men struggled. Many of their most significant life choices were abysmally shallow and helped destroy their happiness. I did feel better as Rilke gained his self respect along the way- it came with a growing awareness of others, basically. Rodin, I just mourned for him and his stolidly debaucherous nature.
There are specific references in here to individual sexual encounters. There are plenty of references to the sex, drugs, and art-talk of the age, well, of any age where people mistake passion for licentiousness.
It turned into a story of men ruining their own lives and wondering why they couldn't live such arrogant hypocritical lives. I was sad to read many parts, wish I hadn't read a few selections, and I eventually was glad to have finished the book nevertheless. For those with a Gospel perspective, these people really were prodigal children, many of whom decided they had to be prodigal because, after all, art above all others.
Insightful, candid, sad, academically interesting, and a cause for me to celebrate my own life and understand the value of my choices and the sorrow I sometimes feel when I choose family over art. I feel far, far better about that now that I have seen the other side of the coin.
Is there any higher art medium than that of having children? No, there is not.
I got this in great anticipation because I had loved Rilke in college and still enjoy his poetry from time to time. We had to translate his stuff from the German in German class. I loved it on so many levels! So when I saw a book about two artists I recognized, had enjoyed the art off, and was curious about, I eagerly waited until I could get the book for myself. I expected passionate artists imbibing on the joy of creativity.
But no; from the outset the mood of the book was darker than that. I would say it felt a bit like dismay, like drear upon the mind, and I sobered up quickly to wonder about both the author and the subjects.
As the book progressed I saw hints of the author's perspective, but more importantly, I saw her striving for a certain amount of neutrality. I always appreciate this in a book. There was also honesty, too.
The fact is, both of these men struggled. Many of their most significant life choices were abysmally shallow and helped destroy their happiness. I did feel better as Rilke gained his self respect along the way- it came with a growing awareness of others, basically. Rodin, I just mourned for him and his stolidly debaucherous nature.
There are specific references in here to individual sexual encounters. There are plenty of references to the sex, drugs, and art-talk of the age, well, of any age where people mistake passion for licentiousness.
It turned into a story of men ruining their own lives and wondering why they couldn't live such arrogant hypocritical lives. I was sad to read many parts, wish I hadn't read a few selections, and I eventually was glad to have finished the book nevertheless. For those with a Gospel perspective, these people really were prodigal children, many of whom decided they had to be prodigal because, after all, art above all others.
Insightful, candid, sad, academically interesting, and a cause for me to celebrate my own life and understand the value of my choices and the sorrow I sometimes feel when I choose family over art. I feel far, far better about that now that I have seen the other side of the coin.
Is there any higher art medium than that of having children? No, there is not.
March 29, 2024
Tek solukta bana 10 tane ressam/heykeltıraş ismi say deseniz sayacağım bütün sanatçılar burada... 1900'lerin başında Paris'teyiz. Tüm bu sanatçıların hayatına uzaktan tanıklık ederken pek çok şeye şaşırıyorum. İlişkiler, vurdumduymazlıklar, yarını düşünmezlikler, eli kulağında bir dünya savaşı, sanatın ne olduğu üzerine Fransızlara has derin mütalaalar... Rilke'nin Lale Müldür'e ilham olmasını artık çok iyi anlayabildiğim o tuhaf symboliesme*mi...
"Birbirlerine 100 farklı isim vereceklerdir ve
sonra hepsini tek tek geri alacaklardır,
kuğu küpelerini yavaşça çıkarır gibi"
"Birbirlerine 100 farklı isim vereceklerdir ve
sonra hepsini tek tek geri alacaklardır,
kuğu küpelerini yavaşça çıkarır gibi"
July 3, 2023
Der Blau Reiter.. Sanırım en etkilendiğim bölüm bu oldu..
Mavi Atlı Sanatçı Klübü
Diğer akılda kalanım:
Rilke'nin Almanca sevmemesi, Fransızca hayranı olması ve en son kitabını Fransızca yazacak kadar dil bilgisini geliştirmesi..
Almancada neden avuç diye bir kelime yok ve biz sadece el tabağı diyoruz:)
Kitapta sadec Rilke ve Rodin yok o döneme damga vurmuş birçok aydın kişisi de yer alıyor. O da ne demekse :)
Heykeltraş ve Şairin gelişimi..Sanat dolu bir kitap..
Okuyup yaşamak lazım , ben ne desem boş.
Okuyana haz veren bir yapısı var:)
Empati kavramının sanattan gelmesi.. Sanat eserinde ''Seyircinin katılımı''
bir çok keyifli mevzu var bu kitapta.
Bu bir roman değil.. Akıcı bir dil ile yazılmış bir inceleme kitabı ve kitabın sonunda kaynakçası da var zaten..
Mavi Atlı Sanatçı Klübü
Diğer akılda kalanım:
Rilke'nin Almanca sevmemesi, Fransızca hayranı olması ve en son kitabını Fransızca yazacak kadar dil bilgisini geliştirmesi..
Almancada neden avuç diye bir kelime yok ve biz sadece el tabağı diyoruz:)
Kitapta sadec Rilke ve Rodin yok o döneme damga vurmuş birçok aydın kişisi de yer alıyor. O da ne demekse :)
Heykeltraş ve Şairin gelişimi..Sanat dolu bir kitap..
Okuyup yaşamak lazım , ben ne desem boş.
Okuyana haz veren bir yapısı var:)
Empati kavramının sanattan gelmesi.. Sanat eserinde ''Seyircinin katılımı''
bir çok keyifli mevzu var bu kitapta.
Bu bir roman değil.. Akıcı bir dil ile yazılmış bir inceleme kitabı ve kitabın sonunda kaynakçası da var zaten..
October 20, 2023
I really nice account of Rilke's and Rodin's lives that intertwined quite unexpectedly - not a dry nonfiction, but rather a storytelling voice.
March 3, 2018
It’s been a big year for the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in museums. Sadly, I missed "Séraphin Soudbinine: From Rodin's Assistant to Ceramic Artist" and "Klimt & Rodin: An Artistic Encounter," both of which were at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. "Kiefer – Rodin" closes at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in a few weeks.
When I noticed "You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2016) by Rachel Corbett, which won the Marburg Prize, I though, “Hmmmm, that looks interesting.” Rodin’s art is prominent in my modern art course.; I have visited the Rodin Museum in Paris, at least four times since I was eighteen, when I developed a crush on his small figure, "Celle qui fut la belle Heaulmière" (She who was the beautiful helmet-maker’s wife.) I think that was about the same time I read a reference to that sculpture in Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. I knew less about Rilke (1875-1926), only that his poems inspired by the paintings by the post-impressionist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) offer marvelous insight and that he was a key influence on the painter Balthus (1908-2001) whose work I find distasteful.
I annotated it. I loved it.
Just as the title suggests, the writer offers intertwined biographies and lays out the complicated dance they performed in each other’s life.
Rodin was originally the mentor, the giant of modern art in Paris at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th. Corbett limns a wonderful tale, not so much of the genius who challenges artistic dogma but of the maker, the artisan driven by carnal appetites who invented his own genius. Rilke was the neurasthenic child of the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His identity was shaped by a mother thwarted in her own social ambitions and his poetry had to unknot itself from the sticky bonds of Romantic lyricism.
Both men loved many women, maintaining long relationships that seem to have had little reciprocity. I knew, for instance, that Rodin married his longtime, long-suffering mistress only months before he died; I had not realized that Beuret died less than a month following the wedding from pneumonia. Their relationship had lasted fifty years. Rilke married the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1878-1954); she, in fact, provided the introduction to Rodin with whom she had studied. They lived most of their lives apart. Rodin’s son, Auguste, existed in French law only as Beuret’s son. Rodin alternately ignored and abused his son; when Rodin died intestate, his son inherited nothing of the massive and invaluable estate that went to the French government as the Musée Rodin. Rilke had a daughter with Westhoff, Ruth. The child was passed around from mother to grandparents. When she married, Rilke did not find it convenient to attend her wedding.
The book feels timely in this #MeToo moment. Rodin was a sexual predator of the first order—although to be fair he was also the target of ambitious females. Rilke’s involvements were more emotionally twisted. Corbett, who wrote this book before any of the scandals of the past year broke, does a fine job telling truths that don’t cloud her deep appreciation of the artists’ accomplishments and her empathy for them as human beings.
This story is not so much a narrative that connects two discrete threads, it is a structure that brings together clusters of artists. There is the artist’s colony at Worpswede in northern Germany where Westhoff and the painter Paula Becker became friends, where Rilke comes to be with Westhoff, having met her in Paris. Worpswede becomes a minor character of its own as part of the story of turn-of-the-century modernism. There is Munich and the ideas of philosophers like Theodor Lipps and Wilhelm Worringer that evolved into the concept of “empathy.” There is even the serendipitous discovery of the Hôtel Biron in Paris, an ancient but glorious heap the French government wanted to sell but which became housing for the painter Henri Matisse, Westhoff, the dancer Isadora Duncan, the future Surrealist Jean Cocteau, and others—and, of course, Rodin and Rilke. The Hôtel Biron is today better known as the Musée Rodin.
"You Must Change Your Life" does what a great biography or memoir always does for me: it provides context, it makes sense of the facts of art history, the objects and movements and breakthroughs. The book is a wonderful look at the highways, byways and crossroads of those thirty crucial years between the waning of Impressionism and the emergence of Surrealism—while getting mired in none of that arbitrary and artificial compartmentalization.
When I noticed "You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2016) by Rachel Corbett, which won the Marburg Prize, I though, “Hmmmm, that looks interesting.” Rodin’s art is prominent in my modern art course.; I have visited the Rodin Museum in Paris, at least four times since I was eighteen, when I developed a crush on his small figure, "Celle qui fut la belle Heaulmière" (She who was the beautiful helmet-maker’s wife.) I think that was about the same time I read a reference to that sculpture in Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. I knew less about Rilke (1875-1926), only that his poems inspired by the paintings by the post-impressionist Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) offer marvelous insight and that he was a key influence on the painter Balthus (1908-2001) whose work I find distasteful.
I annotated it. I loved it.
Just as the title suggests, the writer offers intertwined biographies and lays out the complicated dance they performed in each other’s life.
Rodin was originally the mentor, the giant of modern art in Paris at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th. Corbett limns a wonderful tale, not so much of the genius who challenges artistic dogma but of the maker, the artisan driven by carnal appetites who invented his own genius. Rilke was the neurasthenic child of the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His identity was shaped by a mother thwarted in her own social ambitions and his poetry had to unknot itself from the sticky bonds of Romantic lyricism.
Both men loved many women, maintaining long relationships that seem to have had little reciprocity. I knew, for instance, that Rodin married his longtime, long-suffering mistress only months before he died; I had not realized that Beuret died less than a month following the wedding from pneumonia. Their relationship had lasted fifty years. Rilke married the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1878-1954); she, in fact, provided the introduction to Rodin with whom she had studied. They lived most of their lives apart. Rodin’s son, Auguste, existed in French law only as Beuret’s son. Rodin alternately ignored and abused his son; when Rodin died intestate, his son inherited nothing of the massive and invaluable estate that went to the French government as the Musée Rodin. Rilke had a daughter with Westhoff, Ruth. The child was passed around from mother to grandparents. When she married, Rilke did not find it convenient to attend her wedding.
The book feels timely in this #MeToo moment. Rodin was a sexual predator of the first order—although to be fair he was also the target of ambitious females. Rilke’s involvements were more emotionally twisted. Corbett, who wrote this book before any of the scandals of the past year broke, does a fine job telling truths that don’t cloud her deep appreciation of the artists’ accomplishments and her empathy for them as human beings.
This story is not so much a narrative that connects two discrete threads, it is a structure that brings together clusters of artists. There is the artist’s colony at Worpswede in northern Germany where Westhoff and the painter Paula Becker became friends, where Rilke comes to be with Westhoff, having met her in Paris. Worpswede becomes a minor character of its own as part of the story of turn-of-the-century modernism. There is Munich and the ideas of philosophers like Theodor Lipps and Wilhelm Worringer that evolved into the concept of “empathy.” There is even the serendipitous discovery of the Hôtel Biron in Paris, an ancient but glorious heap the French government wanted to sell but which became housing for the painter Henri Matisse, Westhoff, the dancer Isadora Duncan, the future Surrealist Jean Cocteau, and others—and, of course, Rodin and Rilke. The Hôtel Biron is today better known as the Musée Rodin.
"You Must Change Your Life" does what a great biography or memoir always does for me: it provides context, it makes sense of the facts of art history, the objects and movements and breakthroughs. The book is a wonderful look at the highways, byways and crossroads of those thirty crucial years between the waning of Impressionism and the emergence of Surrealism—while getting mired in none of that arbitrary and artificial compartmentalization.
September 7, 2017
Who would have ever known that one of the world's greatest sculptor's would mentor and guide one of its greatest poets. Reading this story - their fruitful yet volatile relationship - inspired me to write the following - I hope it serves as both a review and a reminder of how I might live.
"Gone are the days of reflection and silence. So interrupted by the multitude of life’s distractions that one cannot experience the world. To look into its vast beauty and proclaim and celebrate life. Rilke and Rodin remind us not how we ought to relate or treat ones we love, but how to take time to absorb the world. To breathe the life we were created to live. Perhaps with different balance, but with equal fervor and passion. To record the moments that shape us and define our trajectories toward something more. Something with joy and love and peace and wisdom. That we would not seek every fleeting thought, but be diligent and focused, intentional and discerning. I may never find the fame and recognition of these two icons of their craft; however, I hope to live with grace and balance and passion and rigor. Full of grit and perseverance – unmoved by trials and obstacles, but strengthen by them with wisdom and understanding. That my life may serve those around me – not as a model – but as a set of lessons that are available to those whom are interested.
I remain hopeful that the life I have been called into tells a story that is far greater than I could ever ask or imagine – not for my own glory, but for His alone."
"Gone are the days of reflection and silence. So interrupted by the multitude of life’s distractions that one cannot experience the world. To look into its vast beauty and proclaim and celebrate life. Rilke and Rodin remind us not how we ought to relate or treat ones we love, but how to take time to absorb the world. To breathe the life we were created to live. Perhaps with different balance, but with equal fervor and passion. To record the moments that shape us and define our trajectories toward something more. Something with joy and love and peace and wisdom. That we would not seek every fleeting thought, but be diligent and focused, intentional and discerning. I may never find the fame and recognition of these two icons of their craft; however, I hope to live with grace and balance and passion and rigor. Full of grit and perseverance – unmoved by trials and obstacles, but strengthen by them with wisdom and understanding. That my life may serve those around me – not as a model – but as a set of lessons that are available to those whom are interested.
I remain hopeful that the life I have been called into tells a story that is far greater than I could ever ask or imagine – not for my own glory, but for His alone."
August 31, 2016
You Must Change Your Life is a fascinating biography of a friendship beautifully written by Rachel Corbett. While we learn about the lives of Rilke and Rodin it is in the telling of the friendship where this book truly shines.
Corbett gives both biographies of the two men as well as an elaborate portrayal of the friendship and mentorship they established. These difficult men are presented in all of their grandeur as well as all of their pettiness, which serves to make them ever more human and real.
One aspect in which I was particularly impressed was Corbett's ability to explain the basics of aesthetics and art history without getting bogged down in terminology. For instance, her explanation of the intellectual atmosphere of the time, a section in chapter 2, is as clear and concise an explanation one will find on aesthetics and the development of the modern concept of empathy. This sets up the rationale for both artists' reception in their own time yet does not derail the flow of the biography.
Highly recommended for those interested in the arts in general and particularly where different forms meet. Also for those who enjoy interesting biographies of people we have all heard of yet may only know a small bit about.
Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
Corbett gives both biographies of the two men as well as an elaborate portrayal of the friendship and mentorship they established. These difficult men are presented in all of their grandeur as well as all of their pettiness, which serves to make them ever more human and real.
One aspect in which I was particularly impressed was Corbett's ability to explain the basics of aesthetics and art history without getting bogged down in terminology. For instance, her explanation of the intellectual atmosphere of the time, a section in chapter 2, is as clear and concise an explanation one will find on aesthetics and the development of the modern concept of empathy. This sets up the rationale for both artists' reception in their own time yet does not derail the flow of the biography.
Highly recommended for those interested in the arts in general and particularly where different forms meet. Also for those who enjoy interesting biographies of people we have all heard of yet may only know a small bit about.
Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.
January 15, 2018
Very absorbing, well written and packed full. Corbett vividly describes each artist's evolution prior to their intersection in Paris in 1902 when Rodin is a mature recognized sculptor in his 60s and and Rilke is an aspiring, if somewhat fragile, young poet in his 20s. From then on it's a psychological journey of two brilliant men and the fascinating environments in which they lived, and how they responded and made sense of some pretty crazy tumultuous times. For me it was a connecting of many dots of art and political history, personalities, landscape, and language. I'm coming away with admiration for the network of support that these artists gave and received from each other, and for their pursuit of authenticity and empathy at great personal anguish.
Midway I stopped to read Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, translated and foreword by Stephen Mitchell. So glad I did. Pulled a lot together, and important to see all those popular quotations from the letters within their original context. It was easy to see how Rilke was working out his own issues as he funneled Rodin wisdom on to the young poet. Mitchell's foreword was especially helpful to understanding Rilke.
Midway I stopped to read Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, translated and foreword by Stephen Mitchell. So glad I did. Pulled a lot together, and important to see all those popular quotations from the letters within their original context. It was easy to see how Rilke was working out his own issues as he funneled Rodin wisdom on to the young poet. Mitchell's foreword was especially helpful to understanding Rilke.
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July 12, 2023"Akıcı değil ama akıyor."
December 26, 2016
It becomes clear in the early pages that Rodin intends to teach the younger artist and poet, Rilke, the difference between observation and seeing, the difference between presenting perfection in art and presenting the truth in art. Empathy from the seer levels the playing field on which to face art. Fronting art, our response, in all genuineness, must exist in a sense of humility that whatever gets seen, it will mandate changing my life. Simple but not easy.
Corbett writes more than two biographies in one book; she has also written about the relationship between the two artists--artists completely different in character and in expression. They were as Dionysus and Apollo, as Pollack and Rothko, as Melville and Hawthorne, as Whitman and Emerson.
Reading about their agreements and their clashes--which were seismic--made this a fascinating biography of Art.
Corbett writes more than two biographies in one book; she has also written about the relationship between the two artists--artists completely different in character and in expression. They were as Dionysus and Apollo, as Pollack and Rothko, as Melville and Hawthorne, as Whitman and Emerson.
Reading about their agreements and their clashes--which were seismic--made this a fascinating biography of Art.
June 2, 2017
I have a weakness for stories about relationships between famous artists and/or writers; this one definitely delivered. I think Rachel Corbett did an excellent job of creating a narrative out of two lives (and many relationships) that hardly follow a straight line. And, like any good book in this genre, the author gave us enough information about the times they lived in without getting sidetracked in extraneous details or making it feel like a scholarly history.
When I was 50 or so pages into it I was worried that the book was going to make me lose all the admiration I had for Rilke--it focused on his younger years and frankly he sounds pretty annoying--but by the end the author put those early days context of his work and later life so that I felt that his early wandering was essential for the person he became.
When I was 50 or so pages into it I was worried that the book was going to make me lose all the admiration I had for Rilke--it focused on his younger years and frankly he sounds pretty annoying--but by the end the author put those early days context of his work and later life so that I felt that his early wandering was essential for the person he became.
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May 12, 2025This is all I ever wanted in a non-fiction and more!
The writing style is absolutely incredible and stunning, not only the words of these two artist are inspiring, but also Rachel Corbett's own words gave me chills more than ones and was so engaging and accessible!
I absolutely adored how she managed to not only write an absolutely incredibly detailed and informative portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, but also ovf their time and the people around them, how they influenced and were in return influenced too. We learnt about the women in their lives with so much respect, got to know their artistic and human influences, while maintaining a critical look at their personalities.
It made me stop, ponder and reflect on my own creative and personal journey.
If you are into non-fiction, I would highly, highly recommend it!
The writing style is absolutely incredible and stunning, not only the words of these two artist are inspiring, but also Rachel Corbett's own words gave me chills more than ones and was so engaging and accessible!
I absolutely adored how she managed to not only write an absolutely incredibly detailed and informative portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, but also ovf their time and the people around them, how they influenced and were in return influenced too. We learnt about the women in their lives with so much respect, got to know their artistic and human influences, while maintaining a critical look at their personalities.
It made me stop, ponder and reflect on my own creative and personal journey.
If you are into non-fiction, I would highly, highly recommend it!
April 2, 2018
I am such a fan of Rilke and this book filled in many details about his life that I didn't know, especially that he had this complicated relationship with Rodin. The author expertly told the tale of these 2 artists, their lives, families, environs, and of course their relationship with one another. There is also an ongoing narrative about the challenges of being an artist, seen through the eyes of these masters. Good read.
August 28, 2016
The story is fascinating! The essence of the friendships and politics of the time really came to life for me. I was completely enthralled by the telling but so much more impressed by the underlying knowledge of art and literature of the author. It is truly a comprehensive primer that covers Art history, romance, politics of the era, and so much more. A good read.
October 2, 2016
Letters to a Young Poet is a longtime favorite book and of course I was introduced to Rodin in my art history classes in college, but learned so much more about each of these masters and their friendship in the dual biography "You Must Change Your Life" - fascinating, well written and eye opening for the historical content of its time I thoroughly enjoyed it!
December 26, 2016
This was such a beautiful book - one of my favorites of 2016. It is a book about many things - a book about relationship, origins of empathy and the history of psychology, a story about workaholics, and a story about the oppression of women in Western history. Beautifully written and extensively researched, it reads like a hard-to-put-down novel.
March 1, 2018
Such a pleasure to read. This was really beautifully done. I felt enriched and was so sad to have it end. I was going to give 4 stars and then realized my vague sense of disappointment was only because it was over.
September 22, 2016
This book makes you feel like you're right there in place and time along with so many other artists. Beautifully written!
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