Books by Kevin Jackson

The Book of Hours

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Kevin Jackson

A gorgeous new translation of one of the strongest inaugural works in twentieth century poetry.
Long hailed as a masterwork of modern German literature, The Book of Hours (1905) marks the origin of Rainer Maria Rilke’s distinctive voice and vision―where clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery and first-person poetry discovers its full lyric possibility. In these audacious poems, a devout but candid speaker addresses an ultimately unknowable deity, passing through love, fear, guilt, anger, bewilderment, loneliness, tenderness, and exaltation in his search for meaning.
In this dual-language edition, Edward Snow, “the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke’s contemporary translators” (Michael Dirda, Washington Post), makes Rilke’s achievement accessible as never before in English. Snow retains a striking fidelity to the German text while also conveying the captivating psychological presence that animates Rilke’s best poems.

The Book of Hours

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Kevin Jackson

Throughout history, most people have lived by the celestial clock of night and day, and by the biological clock of hunger and thirst. Alongside civilization developed the astonishing idea that the day might be divided and subdivided into regular units of time, each with their appropriate behaviors and endeavors.
Since the monastic era in the West, this organization by hours has become so entrenched that time as we perceive it has come almost to seem uncaused, a fact of nature. Now Kevin Jackson restores its strangeness and richness. From the structure of the working day to the imposition of curfews, from the scheduling of public events to the content of etiquette, in a manner no less remarkable for being rarely remarked, the hours give a meaning to our days. Here then are the hours, from dawn to Eliot's "uncertain hour before dawn" by way of elevens and the lunch hour, the hours for siesta, vespers and the witching hour.

The Book of Hours

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Kevin Jackson

Long hailed as a masterwork of modern German literature, The Book of Hours (1905) marks the origin of Rainer Maria Rilke's distinctive voice and vision--where clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery and first-person poetry discovers its full lyric possibility. In these audacious poems, a devout but candid speaker addresses an ultimately unknowable deity, passing through love, fear, guilt, anger, bewilderment, loneliness, tenderness, and exaltation in his search for meaning.

In this dual-language edition, Edward Snow, "the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke's contemporary translators" (Michael Dirda, Washington Post), makes Rilke's achievement accessible as never before in English. Snow retains a striking fidelity to the German text while also conveying the captivating psychological presence that animates Rilke's best poems.

Withnail & I (BFI Modern Classics)

by Kevin Jackson

Released to a muted reception in 1987, Withnail& I has since become one of Britain's best-known cult classics. Jackson analyses the mood and magic of the film, its aesthetics and sensibility, seeking to show, without ever detracting from the film's comic brilliance, how much more there is to Withnail& I than drunkenness and swearing.