Conversations with Rilke

Walking in the Luxembourg Garden, exchanging letters about tea with an irascible Tolstoy, Rainer Maria Rilke's French translator Maurice Betz enjoyed a rare intimacy with the great poet. This account of their collaborative translation of Rilke's only novel brings the reader along on a tour of the glittering cultural scene of interwar Paris. An elegant, poignant look at the great writer's final years, Betz's memoir is a portrait of genius, an evocation of a lost world, and a testament to enduring friendship.