Customer Reviews

Arthur Rimbaud: Presence of an Enigma

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The presence of an enigma, the enigma of presence: The Steinmetz book oscillates between these two poles, revealing one as it obscures the other, before begining the process over again. A clarifying agent -- yes, certainly; the culmination of decades of research -- no doubt. Authoritative, provocative, at times compelling, Steinmetz has returned to us the challenge of a poet and a man that we continue to face, facing ourselves as we do so. And this, I believe, is the final worth of this book. Mirror and lens, it reflects and refracts as much as we care to give into it; as much as we care to take the challenge of Rimbaud seriously for our place and our time.

This is the motherlode. As of this moment there is a French tri-colour upon the pinnacle...the very tip of the iceberg in that chaos of polar ice and night which is Rimbaud at his best. I read all Rimbaud scholarship, and I haven't missed a thing of note for the past 35 years, and I give the nod to Mssr. Steinmetz for achivement becoming a "genie" of synpathetic understanding and scholarly rigour. There will always be need for more on Rimbaud, and just because this book is the greatest so far...I implore you...still read it all beginning with Isabel and her husband, and Delahaye up until this day March 2, 2006. It is the Greatest Story Ever Told. No serious person should miss it. "By the brother's boot it stinks fresh."