Arthur Rimbaud: Presence of an Enigma

A SELECTION OF THE KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A SELECTION OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST NONFICTION OF 2000

The life of Arthur Rimbaud, the “considerable passerby” (Mallarmé), a man who gave up literature at the age of 25, remains as legendary as his poetic work. From the enigmatic poet’s very first writings, his stormy relationship with the poet Paul Verlaine, and his bohemian existence in Paris and London, to his trip to Java and his life as a wandering trader in Arabia and Harar, Jean-Luc Steinmetz delivers here the first biography which, rather than dividing Rimbaud’s life in two halves (as did all his previous biographers), brings out the spiritual and logical continuity underlying his 36-year long “pursuit of desire.”

With perfect mastery of both Rimbaud’s work, which he has edited, and of the scattered source material, Steinmetz makes sense of a hurried, tempestuous life and offers what should be the standard life of Rimbaud for many years to come.