Every ten years, if ever, I manage to get my hands on a book that touches and seduces me as much as Farrol Kahn’s Rilke Novel. That borders on a miracle. At the latest after Ralph Freedman’s highly respected biography, which appeared in German at the beginning of 2000, I believed that everything had been said, written and researched about Rilke. Every piece of correspondence had been decoded and interpreted several times, Europe-wide. After the Rilke estate was handed over to the German Literature Archive in Marbach in 2022, the literary world again became aware of what a fascination Rilke was and still is. So what does Farrol Kahn offer us with his extensive (800-page) novel? Read in full
Reviews
Congratulate you on your impressive bio novel.
Swiss National Library, Bern
Author of definitive biography – Life of a Poet:Rainer Maria Rilke. “Farrol Kahn’s superb novel… lends the subject a truly Proustian perspective… It stirs and sustains the reader’s involvement throughout… The animation of Rilke… is carried out brilliantly.”
Farrol Kahn hat in Eischoll einen Biografischen Roman über den wohl wichtigsten Dichter für das Wallis geschrieben. Eine Arbeit, de zehn Jahre dauerte.
Farrol’s new book on the places in Switzerland where Rilke visited and wrote many of his best works has been chronicled in his latest work due out in January 2024.
A unique feature of the work is the collaboration with a number of partners related to the significant settings to set a challenge to the readers to visit as many as possible and compete for an annual prize.
The book, the challenge and the background to both were recently featured in
The author Farrol Kahn made a presentation of the new edition of the Gstaad Insider’s guide on Wednesday 27th April with a Cheese & Wine Party at the Grande Salle de Rougemont.
An Article in «Journal du Pays-D’Enhaut » (See below), gives an overview of his book, the people and places featured and background on Farrol Kahn’s various other works.
The launch was also reported in Anzeiger Van Saanen.
Winner of photo competition in Gstaad Insider’s guide
Farrol Kahn with winner Olivia Plancherel
The winner of the best picture prize for the second edition was Olivia Plancherel for her panoramic photograph of the tree line and a spectacular sky above Gstaad.
One Comment
I am intrigued indeed to hear of your new title on Rilke during this the 100th aniversary year of the publication of Duino Elegies. What a remarkable character he was and so recognised in the English-speaking world where his works are as you say, uniquely more popular, than that found in print in his native tongue.
Perhaps in common with many a young idealist, I too have memories of Rilke. I remember leafing through a battered copy of his poems during a night under canvas in northern France. It was nearly 25 years ago, the evening after the solar eclipse of August 1999 and we had driven from Oxford to France in order to experience the “zone of totality”…. the poem I remember had something to do with clocks striking and dogs barking down the lane, which applied perfectly to the moment*
*PS: I think I may have found the poem I referred to – it was quite possibly (in the English) To say Before going to Sleep
I am intrigued indeed to hear of your new title on Rilke during this the 100th aniversary year of the publication of Duino Elegies. What a remarkable character he was and so recognised in the English-speaking world where his works are as you say, uniquely more popular, than that found in print in his native tongue.
Perhaps in common with many a young idealist, I too have memories of Rilke. I remember leafing through a battered copy of his poems during a night under canvas in northern France. It was nearly 25 years ago, the evening after the solar eclipse of August 1999 and we had driven from Oxford to France in order to experience the “zone of totality”…. the poem I remember had something to do with clocks striking and dogs barking down the lane, which applied perfectly to the moment*
*PS: I think I may have found the poem I referred to – it was quite possibly (in the English) To say Before going to Sleep