Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library Classics) (English Edition)

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 Rimbauds 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 poets works. He arranges Rimbauds writing chronologically, based on the latest manuscript evidence, so readers can experience the famously teenaged poets 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, ô 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 translators art. Mason has harnessed the precision and power of the poets 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.