A Season in Hell [Paperback]

Arthur Rimbaud (Author), Donald Revell (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

Using immediate vernacular that gives modern readers all the heady brilliance of Rimbaud's rebelliousness, this new translation contains the last poems written by one of the most influential poets before he abandoned poetry at the age of 20. Revell's essay, “Outrageous Innocence, Innocence Outraged,” is offered as postscript, revealing the story of Rimbaud—his wildly creative youth, his years of breaking with traditional morality and decorum, his fame as the genius of French letters, and his early death. Analysis places these poems in the larger historical narrative of the literature of rebellious youth that has molded much of contemporary culture. Published with the original French version on facing pages, this translation will offer many the pleasure of reading this wild-child, long remembered as one of the masters of French poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a wild, drug-taking teen in the 1870s, Rimbaud helped engender modern poetry. This dizzying, brilliant, blasphemous last book of mostly prose poems explores his angers, gratitudes and regrets about the visions and erotic transports celebrated in earlier poems. Revell (Pennyweight Windows) is just the right kind of poet to bring something new to this familiar work; his own recent verse reflects religious visions, and he has translated Rimbaud's successor, Apollinaire. Rimbaud's verve, fascination with the forbidden, and the self-loathing that led him to give up poetry altogether come across with a confident swagger in Revell's wiry syntax. "I dance... hand-in-hand with hags and children," Rimbaud says. Sometimes Revell modernizes ("Copyright remains with me"); elsewhere he courts controversy (for the much-quoted "Il faut etre absolument moderne," Revell gives "I must"—not "One must"—"be absolutely modern"). Yet Revell's method fits Rimbaud's near-madness: the translation shows, and Revell's afterword explains, how this hallucinatory modernism jump-starts an Anglo-American tradition that leads from Blake to the present day. This is an inspired new version of a strange, harsh classic. (Apr.)
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Review

Winner of The Pen USA Translation Award for 2008

"Revell's method fits Rimbaud's near-madness. . . . This is an inspired new version of a strange, harsh classic."  —Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Omnidawn Publishing (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890650307
• ISBN-13: 978-1890650308
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #759,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, January 11, 2008

By 

Joseph M. Palombo (Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Season in Hell (Paperback)

This translation of Rimbaud's most famous poem was published in 2007. I have read and reread this poem for 50 years (the Varese translation.) Finally, sections like The Infernal Bridegroom MAKE SENSE. The Donald Revell doesn't dance around the subject, nor is he vulgar.

When I finished this translation of A Season in Hell, I knew I had finally had the opportunity to have read the poem, snd not to have read a translator remaking the poem behind the scenes.

By the way, I compared three other translations at the same time. Get this one, even if you have another. This book is what translation should be: centered around the work, not a translator's pretentions to poetry.

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant, December 5, 2009

By 

C. S. Ethridge - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Season in Hell (Paperback)

this book stays in my hiking pack. every time i read it i get something else.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Season in Hell, June 21, 2009

By 

lvs2rde "yankeerose" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Season in Hell (Paperback)

I was curious as to who Rimbaud was in relation to the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers". It helped me to get into Eddie's head and why he did what he did.