This is a youth work by Rilke, which captures the atmosphere in Prague in 1900. Barely half a century ago the Czech Republic had separated itself from the Austro-Bohemian Empire, and the silent enmity between the Czechs, also known as 'Bohemers', and the resident Germans, is not only clearly felt; the Czech rebellion is growing subcutaneously and is heading for an explosion.
With this political unrest as background, Rilke paints his characters, and does so in a masterly way. He knows how to give German a rare poetry without becoming woolly, knows how to write far and yet intimately. You are drawn into the thoughts of his characters, their fears and dreams, you walk along with them through the streets of Prague in 1900, and before you know it you're in Café Slavia, bent over a coffee, secretly listening to the conversations of the writers and painters around you.