The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

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The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Author	Rainer Maria Rilke
Original title	Die Aufzeichnungen Des Malte Laurids Brigge
Country	Germany
Language	German
Genre(s)	Autobiographical novel
Publisher	Im Insel Verlag
Publication date	1910
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	two volumes; 191 and 186 p. respectively (first edition hardcover)
ISBN	NA

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge was Rainer Maria Rilke's only novel. It was written while Rilke lived in Paris, and was published in 1910. The novel is semi-autobiographical, and is written in an expressionistic style. The work was inspired by Sigbjørn Obstfelder and his work A Priest's Diary. It later inspired Jean-Paul Sartre's La Nausée. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge addresses existential themes - the quest for individuality, the significance of death, and reflection on the experience of time as death approaches. Heavily influenced by the writings of Nietzsche, Rilke also incorporated the impressionistic techniques of artists such as Rodin and Cézanne.

Sections of the novel attack religion. Specifically, Rilke targets the Christian belief in a Second Coming, a promised event that can only lead to a universal sense of "waiting". This point foreshadows Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Rilke conjured up images of the industrial revolution and the age of scientific progress that are suffused with anxiety and alienation.