Rimbaud [Paperback]

Dennis J. Carlile (Author), Alexia Montibon (Author), Arthur Rimbaud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2000

the weird combination of craziness, immaturity, intuition and insight, obscenity and remorse . . . that marks Rimbaud's work."

-Martin Kanes Professor Emeritus of French and Humanities University of New York

" . . . [the vers nouveaux are] matchlessly beautiful . . . This is Rimbaud cast in the language of Twain and Whitman!"

-Bertrand Mathieu Author of Orpheus in Brooklyn Translator of A Season in Hell and Illuminations

"The punk Prometheus comes to life and sings. Les Corbeaux works as never before . . . I am impressed by the confident English poems made from early Rimbaud . . . "

-Ethan Fischer, Antietam Review

Cover illustration by Alexia Montibon

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), "a prodigious and prodigal adolescent," composed his entire body of work between the ages of 15 and 19. He took poetry "beyond literature." The latter half of his life was spent in Africa as a trader in coffee,hides, ivory, and guns. He died in Marseilles at age 37,on his way back to Africa.

Translator Dennis J. Carlile (b. 1946) first encountered the poetry of Rimbaud at a summer concert in 1965 or 1966 where tenor Charles Bressler sang Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations. Mr. Carlile is the author of several plays, among them Carved In the Fog, Delmore At The Last, and JUMP! The Madness of Nijinsky, written for Alexander Jones.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738852007
• ISBN-13: 978-0738852003
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,325,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charles Nicholl reviews Carlile translation, June 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rimbaud: The Works: A Season in Hell, Poems & Prose, Illuminations (Hardcover)

CHARLES NICHOLL, author of SOMEBODY ELSE: ARTHUR RIMBAUD IN AFRICA 1880-91 has written of Dennis J. Carlile's translation of RIMBAUD:THE WORKS.

"These are the best renditions of Rimbaud in English since
Wallace Fowlie's nearly forty years ago, and many of them surpass that high standard. These poems have been wrestled with, which is the very least they demand, and successfully brought back home. Carlile gets the difficult switches and swoops of tone mostly right, and the linguistic detail is impressive-- for 'un voix etraignait mon coeur gele' you can't get much better than 'a voice would hobble my frostbitten heart'."

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charles Nicholl reviews Carlile translation, June 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Rimbaud: The Works: A Season in Hell, Poems & Prose, Illuminations (Hardcover)

CHARLES NICHOLL, author of SOMEBODY ELSE: ARTHUR RIMBAUD IN AFRICA 1880-91 has written of Dennis J. Carlile's translation of RIMBAUD:THE WORKS.

"These are the best renditions of Rimbaud in English since
Wallace Fowlie's nearly forty years ago, and many of them surpass that high standard. These poems have been wrestled with, which is the very least they demand, and successfully brought back home. Carlile gets the difficult switches and swoops of tone mostly right, and the linguistic detail is impressive-- for 'un voix etraignait mon coeur gele' you can't get much better than 'a voice would hobble my frostbitten heart'."