ABSTRACT
TOWARDS the end of August, 1902, Rilke arrived in Paris. It was still hot in town, the season when the city, at its most oppressive, roused longings for the country. It was his first decisive experience of being utterly alone in a big town, a stranger from the quietude of the countryside and the security of the family life he had been compelled to leave. He arrived, driven by inexplicable social demands which he knew not how to meet and guarding a spiritual life which, demanding protection, was nevertheless hastening towards danger.
