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.This book brings together Rilke’s brilliant essay on poetry ‘Notes on the Melody of Things’ and the first English translation of Rilke’s experiences in Paris as observed by his French translator, Maurice Betz.