I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

One of the most written-about literary figures in the past decade, Arthur Rimbaud left few traces when he abandoned poetry at age twenty-one and disappeared into the African desert. Although the dozen biographies devoted to Rimbaud's life depend on one main source for information - his own correspondence - a complete edition of these remarkable letters has never been published in English. Until now.

Reviews

Wyatt Masons translation of Rimbauds letters is a swashbuckler of a book, nothing less than a resurrection of a remarkable life. As such, it is a worthy companion to Masons fine translation of the poems. No admirer of Rimbaud will want to be without it. Arthur Goldhammer, translator of more than eighty books from the French

These letters, together with the poems, provide as direct a record as possible of what the archetypal bohemian boy-genius did with his gift. They brim with curiosity, ambition, spite, self-pity, and a giant talent; his art is as impervious to time as that of Catullus or Heine. Thanks to Wyatt Masons masterly translations, Rimbaud has, after a century and a half, recovered his gift. Askold Melnyczuk, author of What Is Told and Ambassador of the Dead

Author Bio

The poetic genius of Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) blossomed early and burned briefly. Nearly all of his work was composed when he was in his teens. During the century following his death at thirty-seven, Rimbaud's work and life have influenced generations of readers and writers. Radical in its day, Rimbaud's writing took some of the first and most fundamental steps toward the liberation of poetry from the formal constraints of its history, and now represents one of the most powerful and enduring bodies of poetic expression in human history. Wyatt Mason is a contributing editor of Harper's magazine, where his essays regularly appear. He also writes for The London Review of Books and The New Republic. The Modern Library has published his translations of the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud in two volumes. His translations of Dante's Vita Nuova and Montaigne's Essais are in progress.