Rimbaud Complete

By Arthur Rimbaud

Book Overview

Enduring icon of creativity, authenticity, and rebellion, and the subject of numerous new biographies, Arthur Rimbaud is one of the most repeatedly scrutinized literary figures of the last half-century. Yet almost thirty years have elapsed without a major new translation of his writings. Remedying this state of affairs is Rimbaud Complete , the first and only truly complete edition of Rimbaud's work in English, translated, edited, and introduced by Wyatt Mason. Mason draws on a century of Rimbaud scholarship to choreograph a superbly clear-eyed presentation of the poet's works. He arranges Rimbaud's writing chronologically, based on the latest manuscript evidence, so readers can experience the famously teenaged poet's rapid evolution, from the lyricism of " Sensation " to the groundbreaking early modernism of A Season in Hell . In fifty pages of previously untranslated material, including award-winning early verses, all the fragmentary poems, a fascinating early draft of A Season in Hell, a school notebook, and multiple manuscript versions of the important poem " O saisons, chateaux ," Rimbaud Complete displays facets of the poet unknown to American readers. And in his Introduction, Mason revisits the Rimbaud myth, addresses the state of disarray in which the poet left his work, and illuminates the intricacies of the translator's art. Mason has harnessed the precision and power of the poet's rapidly changing voice- from the delicate music of a poem such as " Crows " to the mature dissonance of the Illuminations , Rimbaud Complete unveils this essential poet for a new generation of readers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375757708
• ISBN13: 9780375757709
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Skip the Introduction

Much of the introduction is about Rimbaud's life and the conflicting stories, as well as translation and why he translated Rimbaud the way he did. My advice is to you is to buy the book and skip Mason's Introduction altogether... and go straight to the actual poems. This book offers the most complete version of Rimbaud that I've found. I own other versions of Illuminations and A Season in Hell. I truly enjoyed reading Rimbaud's earlier poems letters. They show his boldness... his progression into a visionary poet... and his excitement towards writing.Mason's translations of the Illuminations and A Season in Hell are quite solid... and they alone make this book worth purchasing.

Yes, but...

I ... found Fowlie's over-literal translations ugly and lame. But I think this may be deliberate. The unbeautifulness of the translations forces you back to the exquisite French original. It's a joy to have these poems as Rimbaud wrote them, and a bilingual edition is a must for the non-French-reader. If you want a beautiful English translation, I recommend reading Paul Schmidt's in conjunction with this one.

The Rimbaud to get

While the Penguin and Oxford Classics editions claim to be complete, they are not. This edition has several later works that those other editions simply do not include.The literal translation provided does not attempt to be its own art, which is often a translator's greatest virtue. It serves best as a set of cribs for someone who has some French, but whose French isn't perfect.

Finally: A Great Translation of Rimbaud

Some unnamed reviewer up above claims "There have been no fully satisfactory translations of the brilliant modernist forerunner Rimbaud." Whoever wrote that clearly didn't read Wyatt Mason's new translation of Rimbaud's complete works very carefully, because it's a lot more that satisfactory: it's beautiful. While the Wallace Fowlie translation (the blue one) is dependable, it's nothing more than that. It's good if you read French pretty well and need some help. But if you want to try to experience Rimbaud's poems in English as Poems, Mason's work is the only time I've found myself reading along and finding that he's caught both the meanings of words and the feeling of the poems (my mother is French, so I have read Rimbaud in the original). Mason's introduction is also, far and away, the best brief essay on Rimbaud's life and art imaginable, and it also talks really interestingly about translating poetry, and how he's gone about it. This is also the only edition available in English that contains everything Rimbaud wrote. The others, even if they say they're complete, don't come close. Neither do the other translators. I can't recommend this book enough.