Reading Recluse📗 "I Just Let Life Rain Down on Me: Selected Letters and Reflections" by Rahel Levin Varnhagen,
selected and translated from German into English by Peter Wortsman
I saw this title in a newsletter for new indie book releases and was convinced. Nothing more needed. I just let life do that too.
Despite picking this up on a whim, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a collection of interesting letters from about 1790-1830. I knew nothing about the author, but the translator wrote a good introduction that gives you the necessary context. It's clear from his text that he's passionate about his work, which was very encouraging.
The letters are very fun to read. They are witty, sad, profound, kind. They range from family conflicts ("I write this to elicit sympathy; but you have forgotten what sympathy is. That is what your unhappy child hopes hereby to instill in you.") to Goethe fangirling ("I will never renounce my attachment to him; if I said so myself then it must be someone else speaking in my stead, then I would have to metamorphose from the tree of knowledge into the insidious snake!").
Unfortunately it's a short book, but certainly a good one if it piques your interest at all. I'll probably reread certain letters in the future.
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