Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (Perennial Classics) [Paperback]

Arthur Rimbaud (Author), Paul Schmidt (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0060955503 | ISBN-13: 978-0060955502

Arthur Rimbaud is remembered as much for his volatile personality and tumultuous life as he is for his writings, most of which he produced before the age of eighteen. This book brings together his poetry, prose, and letters, including "The Drunken Boat," "The Orphans' New Year," "After the Flood," and "A Season in Hell," considered by many to be his. Complete Works is divided into eight "seasons"--Childhood, The Open Road, War, The Tormented Heart, The Visionary, The Damned Soul, A Few Belated Cowardices, and The Man with the Wind at His Heels--that reflect the facets of Rimbaud's life. Insightful commentary by translator and editor Paul Schmidt reveals the courage, vision, and imagination of Rimbaud's poetry and sheds light on one of the most enigmatic figures in letters.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arthur Rimbaud was a disreputable, mean, ruthless, perverse, hateful wretch. He was also one of the greatest poet who ever lived...

"Schmidt has tackled poems, prose, and letters. He has adopted a new and persuasive chronological arrangement of the work. And he has nimbly compressed the life of the poet into engaging prefaces for each of the eight 'seasons.'...Schmidt has truly made Rimbaud his won. Like every good translation, his is an interpretation. And it is a matter of some astonishment to me that he has done as well as he has with lyrics that, in theory, ought to defy transfer into another language. He has found a tone, pr perhaps it is an idiom, that works." -- Raymond Sokolov, Newsday

"Paul Schmidt has waveredno, has hoveredbetween solicitude and critique, and the result of such suspension is his beautiful, daring, careful work; we have all tried our hand as this, and more than a hand is needed, and has here been bestowed. The whole mannothing less will do, and what I am grateful for is the willingness to risk a vision, a sighting of not only the art but the life of the most baffling and suggestive of our exemplary failures. If there were such a thing as Parallel Lives of the nineteenth century, then Paul Schmidt's Rimbaud would have to be read beside Auden's Keirkegaard. Creative misreading, or let me say, with my admiring breath held, critical markings! It is a wonder that so much concern has been taken, been given, though less a wonder than a benefaction when we recall that concern means no more than a sifting, a winnowing by the senses. The book is the most valuable sieve yet, and serves us the Rimbaud that matters in its fine mesh." -- Richard Howard

After The Flood
Angry Caesar
Anguish
Animals Once Spewed Semen As They Ran
Antique
Asleep In The Valley
At The Green Cabaret
Bad Blood
The Bad Little Angel
Barbarian
Being Beauteous
The Blacksmith
Bottom
The Boy Who Picked The Bullets Up, Destiny's Child
Bridges
The Brilliant Victory Of Saarebruck
Brussels
By The Bandstand
Childhood
Cities I
Cities Ii
City
The Comedy Of Thirst: I. Forefathers
The Comedy Of Thirst: Ii. The Spirit
The Comedy Of Thirst: Iii. Friends
The Comedy Of Thirst: Iv. The Poor Man Dreams
The Comedy Of Thirst: V. Conclusion
Confessions Of An Idiot Old Man
Credo In Unam
Crows
The Customs Men
Dawn
Democracy
Departure
Devotion
Does She Dance
Dream In Wintertime
The Drunken Boat
Drunken Morning
Drunks
Evening Prayer
Evil
Fairy
Farewell
Faun's Head
Feelings
Fete Galante
First Communions
First Delirium: The Foolish Virgin The Infernal Bridegroom
First Evening
Flowers
Fragments From The Book Of John
Genie
H
The Hands Of Jeanne-marie
The Hanged Men Dance
Hear How It Bellows
A Heart Beneath A Cassock
Hidden And Wrinkled Like A Budding Violet
Histgoric Evening
I Sat In A Third-class Railway Car; An Old Priest
I'd Probably Prefer, Come Spring, An Open-air
The Impossible
It Was Springtime
It's Only A Humble Handmade Brush, Too Small
Kids In A Daze
The Ladies Who Look For Lice
Lightning
Lilies
Lines
Lives
Lovely Thoughts For Morning
Martial Law?
Metropolitan
Michael And Christine
Morning
Morning
Movement
My Little Lovelies
Mystique
The Newlyweds At Home
Night In Hell
O Seasons, O Chateaus
The Old Guard
On Summer Nights, Before The Shining Shop Windows
Once, If My Memory Serves Me Well
Ophelia
Ordinary Nocturne
The Orphans' New Year
Our Assholes Are Different From Theirs. I Used To Watch
Parade
Paris
Parisian Orgy
Parisian War Cry
Poor People In Church
Promontory
Recollection
Remarks To A Poet On The Subject Of Flowers
Remembrance
The River Of Cordial
Romance
Royalty
Sale
The Savior Bumped Upon His Heavy Butt
Scenes
Sealed Lips; Seen In Rome
Seascape
Second Delirium: The Alchemy Of The Word
Seven-year-old Poets
Shame
The Sideboard
The Sisters Of Charity
The Sitters
Squatting
The Stolen Heart
The Sun Has Wept Rose
Tale
Tartufe Chastised
Tear
The Tease
To A Reason
To My Bedside Books, Those Exquisite Editions
The Triumph Of Hunger
The Triumph Of Patience: A Song From The Highest Tower
The Triumph Of Patience: Banners Of May
The Triumph Of Patience: Eternity
The Triumph Of Patience: Golden Age
Vagabonds
Venus Anadyomene
Vigils
Vowels
War
The Wastelands Of Love
What Do We Care, My Heart
What Nina Answered
Wheel Ruts
Winter Festival
Workers
You Dead Of Ninety-two And Ninety-three
Young Glutton
Youth: I. Sunday
Youth: Ii. Sonnet
Youth: Iii. Twenty Years Old
Youth: Iv
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060955503
• ISBN-13: 978-0060955502
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #924,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware! Creative translator at work!, December 8, 1999

By 

"lexo-2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (Perennial Library) (Paperback)

Highly unreliable. Schmidt has produced some very good English-language poetry, but it ain't Rimbaud. He conceals this by not printing the original on a facing page. Worse yet, he prints the Illuminations as free verse, when they were written as prose poems (on the rationale that the prose poem isn't as successful a genre in English as it is in French.) I am sternly against this kind of translation, unless you're going to go all the way and admit that what you're doing is a poem by Paul Schmidt "after" Rimbaud. But he doesn't. Rimbaud newbies are directed instead to Louise Varese's superb versions of Illuminations and A Season in Hell; those who want a complete works should go for Wallace Fowlie's less memorable but more faithful edition; total Rimbaud freaks should learn French (and mortgage the house in order to be able to afford the magnificent Pleiade edition of the originals).

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Translation of Rimbaud, May 3, 2000

By 

Laurie A. McMaster (Peabody, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (Perennial Library) (Paperback)

I've collected several translations of Rimbaud's poetry over the years, some good and some leave much to be desired. Schmidt accomplishes a very difficult task here - translating the French in a way that does Rimbaud's work justice. This title is my favorite, and the most used translation when referring to his work. If you must buy one - this is the only translation you'll ever need.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry Unleashed, February 16, 2000

By 

R. Caron "SightSeer" (Montreal, QC CANADA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arthur Rimbaud: Complete Works (Perennial Library) (Paperback)

I have a collection of various translations by Arthur Rimbaud. This book was a revelation to me. The difference is remarkable. By abandoning precise translations, Schmidt allows the full beauty and vulgarity of these works to be free. There is no stilted translation present here. This book is a work of art. It may not be translation in the traditional sense, but it is its own remarkable undertaking - and I believe it will stand the test of time. Congratulations Mr. Schmidt.