**“One of my favorite books.” —Ryan Holiday, *New York Times-*bestselling author and podcaster of The Daily StoicThis classic biography of Michel de Montaigne—the Renaissance philosopher and a founding father of humanism—is a heartfelt argument for the importance of intellectual freedom and tolerance.**Written by one of the 20th century’s most popular authors during WWII, Montaigne is a passionate and readable biography of the great Renaissance humanist. S...

Although the Austrian poet Georg Trakl was born over a century ago, the mesmerising imagery and haunting visions of his highly sensitive and morbidly introspective poetry are as powerful today as they were when he poured forth his extraordinary and unclassifiable volume of work. A source of inspiration for artists, musicians and writers throughout the Expressionist period and beyond, Trakl's poetry – bleak, yet full of tenderness and hope, nightmarish yet eeriely beautiful...

**An intimate portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke's life and art in interwar Paris by his friend and translator, offering unparalleled insight into the creative processA stunningly written, deeply personal biography that’s also a master class in the art of translation, perfect for fans of: Richard Holmes, Lydia Davis, Kate Briggs and Julian Green**From walks in the Luxembourg Garden to letters describing tea with an irascible Tolstoy, Rainer Maria Rilke's French translator, Maur...

A new translation by acclaimed poet Will Stone of the visionary Austrian poet Georg TraklIn Georg Trakl's brief, tragic life he produced a body of work of intense visual power. Dense, imagistic and full of unnerving symbolism, his poems occupy a critical place in German Expressionism.Until his death on the Eastern Front in 1914, Trakl honed a singular poetic voice to express the horror he saw in the world around him, culminating in the starkly powerful war ...

A powerful collection written on the eve of the destruction of Europe by the Second World War, by the great Joseph RothHaving fled to Paris in January 1933, on the very day Hitler seized power in Germany, Joseph Roth wrote a series of articles in that 'hour before the end of the world', that he foresaw was coming and which would see the full horror of Hitler's barbarism, the Second World War and most crucially for Roth, the final irreversible destruction of a pan E...

A fascinating classic account of Nietzsche's travels in Italy at the end of the nineteenth century, where he found inspiration for his major worksFirst published in 1929, Nietzsche in Italy has never been out of print in France but has never been translated into English until now.Endlessly fascinating and highly readable, Nietzsche in Italy will enthrall anyone interested in Nietzsche's relationship with the country that e...

A collection of haunting, mystical poems of the night by the great Rainer Maria Rilke - most of which have never before been translated into EnglishOne night I held between my handsyour face. The moon fell upon it.In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented the writer Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems, meticulously copied out in his own hand, which bore the title "Poems to Night." This cycle of poems which came a...

A scintillating biographical study of the one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, by one of the bestselling writers of the twentieth.In this vivid biography, Zweig eschews traditional academic discussion and focuses on Nietzsche's habits, passions and obsessions. This work, concentrating on the man rather than the work, on the tragedy of his existence and his apartness from the world in which he moved in enforced isolation, is a tour de force, d...

A new collection of essays by Stefan Zweig: tributes to the great artists and thinkers of the Europe of his dayStefan Zweig was one of the twentieth century's greatest authors and a tireless champion of freedom, tolerance and friendship across borders. Encounters and Destinies collects his most impassioned and moving tributes to his many illustrious friends and peers: literary, philosophical and artistic luminaries from across the Old Europe that Zweig loved so muc...

A collection of the great writer's observations, made during his travels across the Europe he loved so muchWhen I am on a journey, all ties suddenly fall away. I feel myself quite unburdened, disconnected, free - There is something in it marvellously uplifting and invigorating. Whole past epochs suddenly return: nothing is lost, everything still full of inception, enticement.For the insatiably curious and ardent Europhile Stefan Zweig, travel was both a nec...

Rainer Maria Rilke offers a compelling portrait of Parisian life, art, and culture at the beginning of the 20th century.In 1902, the young German writer Rainer Maria Rilke traveled to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste Rodin. He returned many times over the course of his life, by turns inspired and appalled by the city's high culture and low society, and his writings give a fascinating insight into Parisian art and culture in the last century. Paris...

Stefan Zweig was a leading talisman of a united Europe of unfettered movement, of pro-active cultural exchange, humane decency and tolerance, all polar opposites of the Nationalist regimes he loathed, and which came to power in the 1930s. In these poignant essays and addresses, forged in the last years or even months of his life, he shows his profound concern for and dedication to the survival of Europe's spiritual integrity.These essays form the natural accompaniment to Zweig's re...