Why a 20th-century visionary poet speaks so eloquently to 21st-century readers yearning for inwardness, beauty & spiritual connection. Rainer Maria Rilke was a giant of twentieth-century writing who is increasingly a visionary voice for our own time, captivating readers not only with his brilliance but also his fearlessness about the 'deepest things'. Speaking through his own contradictions and ambivalences, he gives readers a profound understanding of the complex beauty of human existence. This is the first major study of Rilke from a spiritual perspective, yet the greatest of Rilke's gifts was to show how inevitably life centres upon a profound mystery to which we can freely open ourselves. Drawing on her own deep understanding of the gifts of reading, as well as her personal spiritual seeking, Stephanie Dowrick offers an intimate understanding of this most exceptional poet and his transcendent, piercingly beautiful work. Paperback. Fading to spine and top edge. Text is unmarked.