Arthur Rimbaud

(Paperback)

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Before he had turned 21, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) upended the house of French poetry and left it in shambles. What makes Rimbaud's poetry important, argues Seth Whidden, is part of what makes his life so compelling: rebellion, audacity, creativity and exploration.

Almost all of Rimbaud's poems were written between the ages of fifteen and twenty. Against the backdrop of the crumbling Second Empire and the tumultuous Paris Commune, the poet took centuries-old traditions of French versification and picked them apart with an unmatched knowledge of how they fitted together. Combining sensuality with pastoral, parody, political satire, fable, eroticism and mystery, Rimbaud's works range from traditional verse forms to prose-poetry to the two first free-verse poems written in French.

By situating Rimbaud's writing in Africa as part of a continuum that spans his entire life, this book offers a corrective to the traditional split between his life as a poet and his life afterwards. Written for general readers and students of literature alike, Arthur Rimbaud presents the original damned poet who continues to captivate readers, artists and writers all over the world.

'In his always perceptive account of Rimbaud's life, times and writing, Whidden both draws on the recent research and transmits to English-speaking readers the poet's new and often disconcerting significance.' Ross Chambers, author of An Atmospherics of the City: Baudelaire and the Poetics of Noise

Reviews

"Whidden structures his telling of the story around two central themes which capture Rimbaud's restless spirit--movement and writing--and situates Rimbaud's poetic career within the context of key historical events such as the Franco-Prussian war, the siege of Paris and the Commune. The exhausting relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine is entertainingly recounted, and an elegant reading of Une saison en enfer breathes new life into the lost art of reading texts through the lens of the author's life. There are illuminating readings of Rimbaud's poems throughout, and Whidden succeeds in making difficult texts accessible, quoting in French with English translation. . . . An excellent critical introduction to his life and work for a diverse readership."-- "Forum for Modern Language Studies"
"[An] exquisite short biography. . . . Whidden returns to what we know of Rimbaud's life with force and verve, without forgoing close attention to the work itself. . . . Although Whidden's chapter titles purport to focus on spaces, it is his ability to give a sense of time--both in its passing and in its plasticity--that sets this book apart from similar works. . . . Whidden's art in part consists of extending this poetic logic to the biographical. . . . Arthur Rimbaud is an excellent guide to the impossible task of charting the poet's infinite range and depth."--Thomas C. Connolly "French Forum"
"This highly engaging new biography, in the acclaimed Critical Lives series, brims with scholarly insight and moves along with verve. Whidden wears his erudition lightly and illuminatingly as he blends biography, poetry analysis, cultural history, and the background of the Siege of Paris and the Commune. The biography packs an informational punch for readers new to Rimbaud and also for those seeking to refresh their knowledge of the creative and personal parcours of one of global modernity's landmark poets."-- "Modern & Contemporary France"

Author Bio

Seth Whidden is Professor of French at the University of Oxford and editor of Nineteenth-Century French Studies. His publications include Leaving Parnassus: The Lyric Subject in Verlaine and Rimbaud (2007) and Authority in Crisis in French Literature, 1850-1880 (2014). For ten years he served as co-editor of Parade sauvage, the scholarly journal of Rimbaud studies.