In the Image of Orpheus tells the inner story of Rilke's literary career, tracing--step by step--the mythopoetic journey inscribed in the interweaving lines of the poet's life and art. Blending biography with in-depth analyses of Rilke's poetry and prose (from his little-known Visions of Christ through the Sonnets to Orpheus), the lively narrative draws upon Hillman and Jung, Plato and Petrarch, Apuleius, Ibn Arabi and Lou Andreas-Salome as it unfolds the poet-seer's vision of the nature and destiny of the human soul--a vision as timely as it is timeless.