The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (in German: Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge), published in 1910, was Rainer Maria Rilke's only book-sized work of prose. It is often classified as a novel, but that is questioned frequently. The narrative takes the form of a rambling novelette filled with poetic language and contains, among other things, a retelling of the prodigal son tale, a striking description of death by illness, an ode to the joys of roaming free during childhood, a chilling description of how people wear false faces with others, and a snarky comment about the weirdness of neighbors. There are not chapter divisions, and it can seem disjointed because the topic shifts wildly, but it can be seen as a study of the way people shelter themselves from an outer, seeming-dangerous world. The book has enjoyed enormous popularity over the past century and is still widely read.

The book was first published as hardcover in German by Insel Verlag in 1910 and consisted of two volumes of 191 and 186 pages, respectively. It was first issued in English under the title Journal of My Other Self.

Examples from the text

A joke buried in the text

Amidst the exploration of difficulties scattered throughout the book, there are surprising flashes of humor.

IN GERMAN:

"Es giebt ein Wesen, das vollkommen unschädlich ist, wenn es dir in die Augen kommt, du merkst es kaum und hast es gleich wieder vergessen. Sobald es dir aber unsichtbar auf irgendeine Weise ins Gehör gerät, so entwickelt es sich dort, es kriecht gleichsam aus, und man hat Fälle gesehen, wo es bis ins Gehirn vordrang und in diesem Organ verheerend gedieh, ähnlich den Pneumokokken des Hundes, die durch die Nase eindringen.

Dieses Wesen ist der Nachbar."

TRANSLATION:

"There is a being that is completely harmless if it passes before your eyes, you hardly notice it and immediately forget it again. But as soon as it gets into your hearing in some invisible fashion it develops there, it creeps out, as it were, and one has seen cases where it penetrated the brain and thrived devastatingly in that organ, like canine pneumococcus that enters through the nose.

This being is the neighbor."

English translations

It is considered very challenging to render German lyrical poetry and prose into English because it relies so strongly on alliterative and rhythmic nuances of the German language itself. Thus, Rilke's works have all been translated multiple times, and the Notebooks are no exception. English translations include:

• John Linton (Norton, 1930; Hogarth Press, 1930). Originally published under the title The Journal of My Other Self.
• Mary D. Herter Norton (Norton, 1949)
• Stephen Mitchell (Random House, 1982)
• Burton Pike (Dalkey Archive, 2008)
• Michael Hulse (Penguin, 2009)
• Robert Vilain (Oxford, 2016)