You must change your life The story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin

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.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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 © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.