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Selected Poems and Letters
The poems and letters of one of France's most unusual modern poets, here in both French and English
Arthur Rimbaud was one of the wildest, most uncompromising poets of his age, although his brief literary career was over by the time he was twenty-one when he embarked on a new life as a trader in Africa. This edition brings together his extraordinary poetry and more than a hundred of his letters, most of them written after he had abandoned literature. A master of French verse forms, the young Rimbaud set out to transform his art, and language itself, by a systematic “disordering of all the senses,” often with the aid of alcohol and drugs. The result is a highly innovative, modern body of work, obscene and lyrical by turns—a rigorous journey to extremes. Jeremy Harding and John Sturrock’s new translation includes Rimbaud’s greatest verse, as well as his record of youthful torment, A Season in Hell (1873), and more than 100 letters that unveil the man who turned his back on poetry. The French text of the poems appears on pages facing the English translations, and John Sturrock's introduction examines Rimbaud's two very different careers.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Arthur Rimbaud was one of the wildest, most uncompromising poets of his age, although his brief literary career was over by the time he was twenty-one when he embarked on a new life as a trader in Africa. This edition brings together his extraordinary poetry and more than a hundred of his letters, most of them written after he had abandoned literature. A master of French verse forms, the young Rimbaud set out to transform his art, and language itself, by a systematic “disordering of all the senses,” often with the aid of alcohol and drugs. The result is a highly innovative, modern body of work, obscene and lyrical by turns—a rigorous journey to extremes. Jeremy Harding and John Sturrock’s new translation includes Rimbaud’s greatest verse, as well as his record of youthful torment, A Season in Hell (1873), and more than 100 letters that unveil the man who turned his back on poetry. The French text of the poems appears on pages facing the English translations, and John Sturrock's introduction examines Rimbaud's two very different careers.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
63 people are currently reading
730 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Rimbaud
746 books2,766 followersHallucinatory work of French poet Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud strongly influenced the surrealists.
With known transgressive themes, he influenced modern literature and arts, prefiguring. He started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian war. During his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary output. After assembling his last major work, Illuminations , Rimbaud completely stopped writing literature at age 20 years in 1874.
A hectic, violent romantic relationship, which lasted nearly two years at times, with fellow poet Paul Verlaine engaged Rimbaud, a libertine, restless soul. After his retirement as a writer, he traveled extensively on three continents as a merchant and explorer until his death from cancer. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell , a precursor to modernist literature.
With known transgressive themes, he influenced modern literature and arts, prefiguring. He started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian war. During his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary output. After assembling his last major work, Illuminations , Rimbaud completely stopped writing literature at age 20 years in 1874.
A hectic, violent romantic relationship, which lasted nearly two years at times, with fellow poet Paul Verlaine engaged Rimbaud, a libertine, restless soul. After his retirement as a writer, he traveled extensively on three continents as a merchant and explorer until his death from cancer. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell , a precursor to modernist literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 27, 2022
Most of the poems and letters are presented in the original French on the facing page. A comprehensive collection in translation, which also offers those who can read some French the opportunity to easily view the text in the language of composition. My french is limited, but gosh, Rimbaud sounds so much better in the original.
The "gayness" of Rimbaud — and Rimbaud's work — is also a bone of contention. Some of the translation here seems to obscure what could be seen as possible or sly gay references. For example "ma poitrine" and "sa poitrine" is translated as "my breast to her breasts" — a heterosexual rendering. However, this could just as easily be translated as "my breast to his breast" or the amorphous "chest to chest". The first breast is assumed to belong to the author, but the gender of the second chest is not specified, so the poem could easily, ahem, go both ways. This ambiguity in the language offers an opening for a range of interpretations, and creating these openings, leaving this space in the work, seems to be deliberate.
It also must be noted: Ambiguity protected against charges of obscenity, which could have landed the author in jail. So ambiguity was also a form of self-protection. It was equally salacious and vague — depending on the reader.
To interpret the text in a way that narrows the range of ambiguity, as done here, also seems to be deliberate, and doesn't really respect the work. Rimbaud famously did not limit himself in his youthful explorations, and his sharp poetry doesn't deserve to be obscured and pruned to avoid the prickles.
The "gayness" of Rimbaud — and Rimbaud's work — is also a bone of contention. Some of the translation here seems to obscure what could be seen as possible or sly gay references. For example "ma poitrine" and "sa poitrine" is translated as "my breast to her breasts" — a heterosexual rendering. However, this could just as easily be translated as "my breast to his breast" or the amorphous "chest to chest". The first breast is assumed to belong to the author, but the gender of the second chest is not specified, so the poem could easily, ahem, go both ways. This ambiguity in the language offers an opening for a range of interpretations, and creating these openings, leaving this space in the work, seems to be deliberate.
It also must be noted: Ambiguity protected against charges of obscenity, which could have landed the author in jail. So ambiguity was also a form of self-protection. It was equally salacious and vague — depending on the reader.
To interpret the text in a way that narrows the range of ambiguity, as done here, also seems to be deliberate, and doesn't really respect the work. Rimbaud famously did not limit himself in his youthful explorations, and his sharp poetry doesn't deserve to be obscured and pruned to avoid the prickles.
September 10, 2019
(This review specifically refers to the Penguin edition.)
The poems are amazing - 5-star worthy - and it's dazzling to think of how the wild and precocious French youth-genius that was Rimbaud completely stopped creating any art from the age of twenty one.
The prose-poems 'A Season in Hell' and 'Illuminations' I did not like so much or I didn't 'get' them so much - I wished for there to be more coherence or more story. Rimbaud was on drugs when he wrote much of them and I think it shows.
Then there are the letters that showcase Rimbaud's second career as a trader in Africa. It is impressive that he set on such a path at those times - there were almost no Europeans in the areas he ventured into - and it's remarkable the change of completely leaving off his scandalous former life that included a tempestuous relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine that culminated in Verlaine shooting Rimbaud and being sentenced to prison for it.
In the letters there is a lot of rabbity concern with money and Rimbaud speaks some of local conditions in Africa. Rimbaud's fear of military service stood out to me - his mother and sister are often urged to confirm that he would not have to serve it. Then there is the ending of Rimbaud's leg having to be amputated, and his death from cancer at the age of thirty seven, which I found to be so sad.
The poems are amazing - 5-star worthy - and it's dazzling to think of how the wild and precocious French youth-genius that was Rimbaud completely stopped creating any art from the age of twenty one.
The prose-poems 'A Season in Hell' and 'Illuminations' I did not like so much or I didn't 'get' them so much - I wished for there to be more coherence or more story. Rimbaud was on drugs when he wrote much of them and I think it shows.
Then there are the letters that showcase Rimbaud's second career as a trader in Africa. It is impressive that he set on such a path at those times - there were almost no Europeans in the areas he ventured into - and it's remarkable the change of completely leaving off his scandalous former life that included a tempestuous relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine that culminated in Verlaine shooting Rimbaud and being sentenced to prison for it.
In the letters there is a lot of rabbity concern with money and Rimbaud speaks some of local conditions in Africa. Rimbaud's fear of military service stood out to me - his mother and sister are often urged to confirm that he would not have to serve it. Then there is the ending of Rimbaud's leg having to be amputated, and his death from cancer at the age of thirty seven, which I found to be so sad.
June 1, 2023
Did I read this solely because Patti Smith thinks it's good? why yes yes I did.
Rimbaud is one of those people who gets mentioned in other books so I knew a bit about him without having read any of his poems. His earliest published work was at the age of 16, and by the age of 21 he had abandoned literature and went to North East Africa (what was then Abyssinia) and became a trader. He (apparently) revolutionised French poetry and the Symbolist movement, had an affair with Paul Verlaine, who accidentally shot him in the wrist, and may or may not have been a part of the Paris Commune.
Some of the poetry was very good and very cool. Some of the translation I thought was a bit mediocre, but I used my (very limited) French to read the original french as well for some bits which added vibes. Ophelia and Popular Fiction were my favourite, and there was one lines that goes 'Night steps ashore, dark pirate on a golden sky' which is cool. A Season in Hell was... interesting but pretty intense. Lots of it is super angsty.
This book also contains a selection of his letters. Some of his earliest ones contain his now famous phrase 'I is someone else' (also referenced by the Arthur Rimbaud in I'm Not There), and his poetic manifesto of 'disordering the senses' - a lot of it has punk sensibility.
A lot of the letters from his time in North Africa get repetitious cos it's all business deals and then he starts complaining about black people which isn't fun. I ended up just skimming them.
Poetry/prose 4.75/5, letters 3/5.
Rimbaud is one of those people who gets mentioned in other books so I knew a bit about him without having read any of his poems. His earliest published work was at the age of 16, and by the age of 21 he had abandoned literature and went to North East Africa (what was then Abyssinia) and became a trader. He (apparently) revolutionised French poetry and the Symbolist movement, had an affair with Paul Verlaine, who accidentally shot him in the wrist, and may or may not have been a part of the Paris Commune.
Some of the poetry was very good and very cool. Some of the translation I thought was a bit mediocre, but I used my (very limited) French to read the original french as well for some bits which added vibes. Ophelia and Popular Fiction were my favourite, and there was one lines that goes 'Night steps ashore, dark pirate on a golden sky' which is cool. A Season in Hell was... interesting but pretty intense. Lots of it is super angsty.
This book also contains a selection of his letters. Some of his earliest ones contain his now famous phrase 'I is someone else' (also referenced by the Arthur Rimbaud in I'm Not There), and his poetic manifesto of 'disordering the senses' - a lot of it has punk sensibility.
A lot of the letters from his time in North Africa get repetitious cos it's all business deals and then he starts complaining about black people which isn't fun. I ended up just skimming them.
Poetry/prose 4.75/5, letters 3/5.
May 12, 2021
I never imagined some French dude from the 19th century to be so relatable.
Rimbaud's adolescent writing translates into something rambunctious and entirely unapologetic.
His language reflects the anticipations and fears that come along with budding adulthood.
"I know dusk and dawn, rising like a multitude of doves. What men have only thought they'd seen, I've seen."
It is at times unplished and crass, but somehow feels like it is done very deliberately and organically.
"The wolf howled in the cover
Spitting out bright feathers
From his feast of fowl.
Like him I consume myself."
With a collection of his work like this one, it is easy to get overwhelmed, I suggest coming back to this one here and there, to truly be able to indulge in all that he has to offer.
Truly a fearless poet and one of my absolute favourites.
Rimbaud's adolescent writing translates into something rambunctious and entirely unapologetic.
His language reflects the anticipations and fears that come along with budding adulthood.
"I know dusk and dawn, rising like a multitude of doves. What men have only thought they'd seen, I've seen."
It is at times unplished and crass, but somehow feels like it is done very deliberately and organically.
"The wolf howled in the cover
Spitting out bright feathers
From his feast of fowl.
Like him I consume myself."
With a collection of his work like this one, it is easy to get overwhelmed, I suggest coming back to this one here and there, to truly be able to indulge in all that he has to offer.
Truly a fearless poet and one of my absolute favourites.
November 28, 2024
me arrependi de não ter comprado uma edição em português, sinceramente.
a qualidade poética do rimbaud é muito clara e eu vejo isso muito bem quando leio os poemas dele no original dessa edição — que é bilíngue, inclusive —, mas nossa senhora… que tradução chinfrim! eu pensava que era por causa desse tradutor em específico, mas quando pesquisei outros (também em língua inglesa) só compreendi que boa parte da grandeza do rimbaud se perde quando passada pra uma língua como o inglês. o livro perdeu muito do prazer quando eu lia os trechos em francês e percebia quanta da profundidade poética tinha sido perdida (tanto as rimas, quanto as métricas, tudo o que foi cuidadosamente pensado pelo rimbaud e perdido), contudo não atribuo isso a quem fez o trabalho de traduzir (apesar de haver muita culpa nesse caso!) e sim às limitações da língua inglesa perante a grandiosidade de uma língua românica.
a qualidade poética do rimbaud é muito clara e eu vejo isso muito bem quando leio os poemas dele no original dessa edição — que é bilíngue, inclusive —, mas nossa senhora… que tradução chinfrim! eu pensava que era por causa desse tradutor em específico, mas quando pesquisei outros (também em língua inglesa) só compreendi que boa parte da grandeza do rimbaud se perde quando passada pra uma língua como o inglês. o livro perdeu muito do prazer quando eu lia os trechos em francês e percebia quanta da profundidade poética tinha sido perdida (tanto as rimas, quanto as métricas, tudo o que foi cuidadosamente pensado pelo rimbaud e perdido), contudo não atribuo isso a quem fez o trabalho de traduzir (apesar de haver muita culpa nesse caso!) e sim às limitações da língua inglesa perante a grandiosidade de uma língua românica.
February 23, 2023
I shed more tears than god ever asked for
Poor guy
Poor guy
June 8, 2025
jesus christ they DID NOT need to put all those letters in
December 12, 2017
Poetry is one art form that I continue to sample, yet in the main struggle to fully appreciate. So I have arrived at this Penguin Classic of Arthur Rimbaud's 'Selected Poems and Letters' without any prior knowledge of his life and work.
What is striking about Rimbaud's writing is the depth of his vocabulary at the age of just fifteen. As the 'man' himself states in 'The Deserts of Love', "These are the writings of a young man, a very young man, whose life has unfolded in no fixed place; no mother, no country, careless of the things one should care about; like many wretched young men, evading moral laws."
Personally, I found 'The Deserts of Love' and 'A Season in Hell' a struggle to complete, however discovered much of historical interest in his letters, particularly those from his time in Aden and Ethiopia.
What is striking about Rimbaud's writing is the depth of his vocabulary at the age of just fifteen. As the 'man' himself states in 'The Deserts of Love', "These are the writings of a young man, a very young man, whose life has unfolded in no fixed place; no mother, no country, careless of the things one should care about; like many wretched young men, evading moral laws."
Personally, I found 'The Deserts of Love' and 'A Season in Hell' a struggle to complete, however discovered much of historical interest in his letters, particularly those from his time in Aden and Ethiopia.
March 15, 2022
I am not a fan of poetry because, for the most part, I don’t understand it. For readers like myself here is a breakdown of most poetry: 99% of poems are about one of two things: love or death. The love poems are easy to spot, so everything else is about death. I learned this in high school and it spared me a lot of stress from trying to figure out poetry.
That being said, Rimbaud is something different. He is love, death, rapture and torture all in one. A Season in Hell is not an easy poem to comprehend. The surrealist imagery and dated language make it very challenging. That is why I love this edition - the translation is perfect for those who may struggle with the complexities of Rimbaud‘s imagery (this edition also includes the original French text for those wishing to make comparisons). I re-read A Season in Hell often and every time I find something new in it. I can’t recommend it enough.
I also highly recommend listening to the BBC Between the Ears radio production of A Season in Hell, from 2009. It is an abridged reading, but is probably the best I’ve ever heard despite the abridgement. It is performed by Carl Prekopp. It’s no longer available through the BBC website but can easily be found on YouTube.
That being said, Rimbaud is something different. He is love, death, rapture and torture all in one. A Season in Hell is not an easy poem to comprehend. The surrealist imagery and dated language make it very challenging. That is why I love this edition - the translation is perfect for those who may struggle with the complexities of Rimbaud‘s imagery (this edition also includes the original French text for those wishing to make comparisons). I re-read A Season in Hell often and every time I find something new in it. I can’t recommend it enough.
I also highly recommend listening to the BBC Between the Ears radio production of A Season in Hell, from 2009. It is an abridged reading, but is probably the best I’ve ever heard despite the abridgement. It is performed by Carl Prekopp. It’s no longer available through the BBC website but can easily be found on YouTube.
November 7, 2022
Great collection of Rimbaud's work and the many letters included here offer a great insight into the mind of this child prodigy and nomadic businessman (in latter years). Rimbaud's life played like a book divided into two parts and still we are left to wonder why he distanced himself from his life as a poet in the second part. Perhaps he simply felt disillusioned or bored! At any cost, for a first time reader of Rimbaud's work, this edition is first-rate.
March 14, 2021
"Oh Arthur Arthur we are in Abyssinia Aden making love smoking cigarettes.."
Thus sprach Patti Smith in her dreamy tribute to the tormented French poet Rimbaud. It was little wonder that his provocative disposition was an inspiration to the punk savants of the 1970's.
So what is it about creative artists who grind against the grain the minute they achieve commercial success. Neil Young finally got a solo number one then immediately 'headed for the ditch'. Scott Walker opened his 'Brel-la' and floated away in the late sixties. Jim Morrison. Syd Barrett. Ad nauseam.
But no one did it quite like Arthur Rimbaud in the mid-nineteenth century. He was a celebrated poet from the age of sixteen and before he was twenty one he had completely denounced all that was conventional in society. Through drink and drugs he willingly journeyed 'to the bottom of the well' venting his spleen in words and actions, all the while believing he was a chosen seer. He had to experience the real 'season in hell' to commit it to poetry. Mmmm.
Not being big on poetry, I must confess that it was the essays of Patti Smith that led me here. His earlier 'conventional' poems were quite intoxicating and surprisingly accessible. But after struggling through a swathe of Rimbaud's often vitriolic and hallucinatory writings it was almost a relief to arrive at his trunk-load of eloquent letters from all sorts of exotic locations.
It seems amazing that after five short years of rocking the literary world he threw it all in to pursue more crazy jobs than Tony Robinson. And that's after an infamous and seemingly violent love affair with the Television guitarist. Or not.
Mercenary, Shipping clerk, All round trader and Arms dealer. You name it. Arthur did it. All by the age of thirty seven (like Lucy Jordan) when he literally didn't have a leg to stand on and succumbed to cancer.
Perhaps he'll always be remembered most for 'A season in Hell' which renders him a sort of tortured rock star before his time. Just a shame he didn't die ten years younger.
Thus sprach Patti Smith in her dreamy tribute to the tormented French poet Rimbaud. It was little wonder that his provocative disposition was an inspiration to the punk savants of the 1970's.
So what is it about creative artists who grind against the grain the minute they achieve commercial success. Neil Young finally got a solo number one then immediately 'headed for the ditch'. Scott Walker opened his 'Brel-la' and floated away in the late sixties. Jim Morrison. Syd Barrett. Ad nauseam.
But no one did it quite like Arthur Rimbaud in the mid-nineteenth century. He was a celebrated poet from the age of sixteen and before he was twenty one he had completely denounced all that was conventional in society. Through drink and drugs he willingly journeyed 'to the bottom of the well' venting his spleen in words and actions, all the while believing he was a chosen seer. He had to experience the real 'season in hell' to commit it to poetry. Mmmm.
Not being big on poetry, I must confess that it was the essays of Patti Smith that led me here. His earlier 'conventional' poems were quite intoxicating and surprisingly accessible. But after struggling through a swathe of Rimbaud's often vitriolic and hallucinatory writings it was almost a relief to arrive at his trunk-load of eloquent letters from all sorts of exotic locations.
It seems amazing that after five short years of rocking the literary world he threw it all in to pursue more crazy jobs than Tony Robinson. And that's after an infamous and seemingly violent love affair with the Television guitarist. Or not.
Mercenary, Shipping clerk, All round trader and Arms dealer. You name it. Arthur did it. All by the age of thirty seven (like Lucy Jordan) when he literally didn't have a leg to stand on and succumbed to cancer.
Perhaps he'll always be remembered most for 'A season in Hell' which renders him a sort of tortured rock star before his time. Just a shame he didn't die ten years younger.
April 10, 2020
Rimbaud was a demonic implosion, fierily clawing the mist of molecules strangling the sublunacy. Armed with baldrics of snakehide sensuality, phantasmagorially phalanxed and welded together with absinthine ague, our rimbounder poet sought epiphanies of divine atheism in order to ordain the ministry of precedence to the ophthanatos. He wrote nice things, and after those nice things embarked towards cartographic voids, weft together lacunae of our oblivion, how he consonanced nullity with black-empty cerebrash strokes! Hell and back, timetables mnemonically caressed, hell and back, loco-motion, hell and back, darkness of the night at either end.
A tender monstrance, an host devoured by sexalted hagiography, Arthur, defiling innocence with torrents of pen and ink, he, a shithead through-and-through, rough-and-rough frou-frou on paper, underneath dripping spite. A cell of carousal, a true poet - for what is a true poet, if not one gruesomely crippled by ability, always on the lookout for parallel bodies, never seen nor sought; a frantic exploderer, sucking history dry with proboscis atrophied by evolution, looking for wrong nuances, and ultimately spawning sheerness out of frustration! His terrestrial communication? but signals sent from the shore of Already! Blazingly phobic floressence!
Flip the final sou: Arseholy Arthur, the sauntering shit. Footwear worn in ordealure, souls too close to the sun not to roar in hellflames. Sinbiosis, fungus who wrought decay, a cancergrowth on the society he could never even bother to look through other lies.
Wild tormented fool who tore to the middle, tentatively stretching towards our beginnings and ends.
A tender monstrance, an host devoured by sexalted hagiography, Arthur, defiling innocence with torrents of pen and ink, he, a shithead through-and-through, rough-and-rough frou-frou on paper, underneath dripping spite. A cell of carousal, a true poet - for what is a true poet, if not one gruesomely crippled by ability, always on the lookout for parallel bodies, never seen nor sought; a frantic exploderer, sucking history dry with proboscis atrophied by evolution, looking for wrong nuances, and ultimately spawning sheerness out of frustration! His terrestrial communication? but signals sent from the shore of Already! Blazingly phobic floressence!
Flip the final sou: Arseholy Arthur, the sauntering shit. Footwear worn in ordealure, souls too close to the sun not to roar in hellflames. Sinbiosis, fungus who wrought decay, a cancergrowth on the society he could never even bother to look through other lies.
Wild tormented fool who tore to the middle, tentatively stretching towards our beginnings and ends.
January 17, 2024
Rimbaud had a strange life. In five years from the age of fifteen, he lived a wild life and wrote the poems that caused him to be regarded as a major poet throughout Europe, then he gave it all up and became a jobbing trader in the Horn of Africa, never again looking back to his literary aspirations and achievements. The letters in this volume come mainly from his African days and show an irritable and pessimistic character.
One of his eye-catching poems is about an "Arsehole", and reading the biographical introduction, it seems that Rimbaud was himself a bit -- maybe a lot -- of an arsehole, not really someone it's easy to like or admire. He has to be vindicated by his poetry.
I have no feel whatever for French poetry, and the face-to-face translations, though reassuring, didn't help me much. The English versions, though sometimes interesting in subject matter, left me baffled for the most part, being so much word-salad.
Rimbaud had a cruel death, and the tale of his physical decline that emerges through his letters is a harrowing read.
One of his eye-catching poems is about an "Arsehole", and reading the biographical introduction, it seems that Rimbaud was himself a bit -- maybe a lot -- of an arsehole, not really someone it's easy to like or admire. He has to be vindicated by his poetry.
I have no feel whatever for French poetry, and the face-to-face translations, though reassuring, didn't help me much. The English versions, though sometimes interesting in subject matter, left me baffled for the most part, being so much word-salad.
Rimbaud had a cruel death, and the tale of his physical decline that emerges through his letters is a harrowing read.
August 17, 2024
What an absolute struggle to get through!!! I went into this very intrigued by Rimbaud’s life story and I expected greatness but didn’t get that much of it. Most poems felt like scatterbrained ideas and I was barely able to depict any meaning from them or at least a general theme. Am I dumb? Or is this all just too French? Lmao
Anyway, I still think it’s incredibly impressive how he wrote all this in his late teens and tragic that he was gone so young. Who knows what he would’ve come up with later. From what I did pick up, he was concerned with themes of societal evolution, escapism and a lust for change. Small side note, the way he writes, for some reason, really makes me imagine him as a major asshole lol
Anyway, I still think it’s incredibly impressive how he wrote all this in his late teens and tragic that he was gone so young. Who knows what he would’ve come up with later. From what I did pick up, he was concerned with themes of societal evolution, escapism and a lust for change. Small side note, the way he writes, for some reason, really makes me imagine him as a major asshole lol
December 12, 2019
Rimbaud's poetry is ahead of its time - he was clearly very talented. The letters in this collection are interesting - some in terms of illuminating the conditions for a colonial trader (and some, though not much, information about conditions for those who were colonised) - and, ultimately sad reading, as Rimbaud's health seriously declined.
September 27, 2020
Rimbaud's poetry is, in the most sublime way possible, utterly beautiful. To me it will always be inspiring that someone so young could conjure up such fantastic images, thoughts and ideas. Even in English his words still remain beautiful. The images he creates are so vivid. His letters, while tedious to read at times, are still so fascinating.
December 10, 2024
I am a large fan of Rimbaud; I study his poetry, his life, and even started writing my own poetry at a seemingly young age. This book has the poems, organised them and all that but got a few details wrong about his life only a few but yes, but overall it’s a great book with amazing poetry by the initial prodigy of Arthur Rimbaud.
July 10, 2017
Especially the letters from Africa.
Read
August 20, 2021weird and unapologetic but isn’t everybody at 19?
Read
October 24, 2021"Dreaming of monstrous loves and fantastic universes."
March 4, 2022
"Did they wilt the gilded flowers
At the smouldering feet of Madonnas?
Or is the black blood of belladonna
Surging and sleeping in their palms?"
At the smouldering feet of Madonnas?
Or is the black blood of belladonna
Surging and sleeping in their palms?"
July 14, 2022
rimbaud lowkey the lorde of the 19th century …
July 26, 2022
i don't think i see what he's trying to say nor like how he's trying to say it
May 1, 2023
3.5*
September 29, 2023
insanity
December 18, 2025
The poetry is amazing, of course. One star taken off because some of the letters could have been edited out. The ending is heartbreaking
August 13, 2015
Though writing only for a brief five years, Rimbaud can be
considered one of the most revolutionary poets to come out
of France. Although turning his back on literature at the young age
of twenty-one, he left behind an unforgettable trace of his lyrically
crazed genius. This collection of both poems and letters allows us to
examine two very different aspects of the poet's life through the most
imaginative visions.
"I know dusk, and dawn, rising like a multitude of doves.
What men have only thought they’d seen, I’ve seen."
“I had to travel, to shake off the enchantments massing on my brain. Above the sea, which I loved as though it could cleanse me of some defilement, I saw the cross of consolations rise.”
considered one of the most revolutionary poets to come out
of France. Although turning his back on literature at the young age
of twenty-one, he left behind an unforgettable trace of his lyrically
crazed genius. This collection of both poems and letters allows us to
examine two very different aspects of the poet's life through the most
imaginative visions.
"I know dusk, and dawn, rising like a multitude of doves.
What men have only thought they’d seen, I’ve seen."
“I had to travel, to shake off the enchantments massing on my brain. Above the sea, which I loved as though it could cleanse me of some defilement, I saw the cross of consolations rise.”
January 20, 2008
if this is the penguin edition new all black paperback horrible font on the spine crazy translation no man has ever seen makes rimbaud sound like ali g aiiii
July 15, 2010
crazy poems.
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