The poet and the countess

"The early death in 1908 of her husband, Count Christoph Martin Degenfeld, combined with the birth of her child, left Ottonie Degenfeld confined to a wheelchair and in a state of severe depression. But two years earlier, in December 1906, she had met the famous young Austrian poet, Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Learning of her situation, he now started writing to the twenty-seven-year-old countess, and her road to a new life enriched by literature and the arts began.

Presented here for the first time in the English language, their correspondence provides insights into the creative processes of Hofmannsthal, whose works were strongly influenced by this unusual relationship.".

"The lively correspondence is a window into a vanished world of European high society. It is a period piece reflecting the life of the affluent German aristocracy and its interaction with the arts in the first quarter of the century. Against this background, the lives and works of a number of prominent cultural figures, such as Richard Strauss and Max Reinhardt, are brought into a new light.

Hofmannsthal's reports on the trials and triumphs of his libretti for Strauss's revolutionary operas are fascinating, as are his poignant comments on the First World War, and its catastrophic consequences.".

"The correspondence reveals an intense friendship and shows how a sensitive and compassionate man, considered one of the foremost writers in the German language, helped a young woman to recover from the depths of despair and to find new meaning in her shattered life. At the same time, the correspondence reveals that, as Ottonie matured, it was she who helped lift the poet from his own gloom and personal problems."--BOOK JACKET.