The Moloch Paris. A pregnant woman pushes herself along a wall, the stone is more protective than the people. Forced into isolation, people are thrown back into a cold, ugly world that smells of carbolic acid, of the fat from French fries, of fear. Boldly, Malte Laurids Brigge, the last scion of an extinct noble family, dares to look behind the surface of things and finds a new life full of new meanings. Rainer Maria Rilke's only novel, with its radical subjectivity, is a milestone of literary modernism. With a contribution from Kindler's Literary Lexicon. Includes data on life and work, exclusively written by the editorial team of the literary journal TEXT + KRITIK.