Rilke did his writing at the turn of the century, having been contemporary with and close to such revolutionary thinkers as Nietzsche, Freud and Rodin, as well as particularly feminist thinkers like Ellen Kaye and Lou Andreas-Salome. Having written at that time in history means that when he was talking about autonomy and mutual respect in male-female relationships, he was one of only a very few voices speaking from that perspective. He was also overt in his description of sex that, although literally beautiful and eloquently written, would have been incredibly startling for the Puritanical European audience that would have been seeing his work first. His work was highly rebellious and revolutionary in the setting in which it was written.
Love and Other Difficulties, Translations and Considerations of Rainer Maria Rilke
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