You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin

In 1902, Rainer Maria Rilke--then a struggling poet in Germany--went to Paris to research and write a short book about the sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two were almost polar opposites: Rilke in his twenties, delicate and unknown; Rodin in his sixties, carnal and revered. Yet they fell into an instantaneous friendship. Transporting readers to early twentieth-century Paris, Rachel Corbett's You Must Change Your Life is a vibrant portrait of Rilke and Rodin and their circle, revealing how deeply Rodin's ideas about art and creativity influenced Rilke's classic Letters to a Young Poet.

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Published Oct 10, 2017

320 pages

Average rating: 7.5

2 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

anne ducastel
Jan 08, 2026
6/10 stars
I went into this book loving Rilke and kind-of-annoyed with Rodin and came out really-irritated with Rilke and with some new found respect for Rodin. Overall, a great book but it lacked energy (it was more Rilke than Rodin for sure). aren't readers fickle...

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