Rimbaud: A Biography

Rating:
Summary: Examining the Rimbaud myth.
Review: An enjoyable book-- well-written and apparently well-researched, if occasionally a little snarky in tone.

Robb has a rare talent (Mitford-esque, if I dare say so) for injecting his point of view in a way that is visible but not overly intrusive. I was glad to have him as a narrative presence throughout the book.

I haven't thought about Rimbaud in years. I read _A Season in Hell_ as a high school student, as you do, but wasn't converted. I never really made a serious effort to engage his poetry or his life. I was motivated to pick this book up after reading a review, and was not disappointed. If you would like to read beyond the tortured artist and into the life of a fascinating and important literary figure, then this is the book for you.

What interested me in reading the biography is how much Rimbaud myth I had unintentionally absorbed over the years. Robb tells the reader a lot about the Rimbaud myth, and I think that many readers are going to find that much of what they thought they knew was not true. He spends a lot of time on the and unwraps the layers for the reader. In that sense, the book also becomes a look at how narrative fictions develop about literary figures. In any case, the facts about Rimbaud are happily much more interesting than the fiction.

The book has inspired me to go back to A Season in Hell and maybe pick up the collected letters. Rimbaud becomes a great deal more interesting if you look at his entire career and not just the period before he turned 19.

Generally: A good read & worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Who knew that PAUL VERLAINE was so interesting?!
Review: I won't bother reviewing the book extensively, because the other reviews and the Amazon summary does a great job, but I would like to add a few thoughts.
When I was a child I heard about A Season In Hell. I first heard about in Rimbaud in an utterly forgettable movie, but now I must remember it because it introduced me to the greatest Poet who ever lived. I read the poem and I didn't understand much of it, but what I did understand is that it was hauntingly beautiful, and wonderfully depraved. Almost twenty years later I still don't understand all of the poem, and my opinion has not changed. Still I didn't know much about the man except that he faked his own death. I read bits of information, part of a biography that was poorly written, and I sadly gave up on this story for years. When a friend recommended this book, not for Rimbaud, he accidentally got it in a book of the month club and decided to read it, but because it was a great book. To which I wholeheartedly agree. It is more than just a book about a genius and a poet, but it is a wonderfully written book filled with dry humor and insightful commentary.
Best of all for the lovers of literature and fact, this book dispels many, many myths about Arthur Rimbaud while still keeping true to the demonic young man and his disreputable behavior and youth fueled fury. I will say that sometimes the book felt more like a love letter, and the author did hold back a bit, but only rarely and only in words not in thought...
Read this book because it is a great book about a great man.

*WARNING* This book will make you think, and may even make your life seem small in comparison! It is a great motivator for all of us with wandering spirits, fanciful dreams, but sedentary lives.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not a must read
Review: Rimbaud was an interesting character. If you are not into the Rimbaud poetry, mystique, history, etc. then this book can get a little long. This is not a life you absolutely need to know about. While the book is pretty well written, I wouldn't buy or read it again. If you are a big Rimbaud fan I'm sure you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: nasty and bourgeois genius.
Review: Rimbaud: A Biography
Graham Robb's Rimbaud biography. Fantastic read, not enough about the poetry, perhaps, but sufficient about the life in Africa to demolish the myth of Rimbaud as anti-establishment.
Amazing how thoroughly nasty and bourgeois AR was. He stayed in Africa because he was trying to save up for a good wife. He said if he returned poor he would only get a widow. He hoped to get a college girl if he returned rich enough. While in Africa he was beaten almost to death after cutting an infibulated girl with a knife and seriously wounding her. He was not killed because Muslims dont kill madmen.
He trafficked in guns and traveled with slave caravans. He is recorded as attempting to buy two boy slaves.
The most astounding thing about AR is his, and his families, treatment of his older brother. Alfred "married a pregnant pauper" and for this terrible crime against bourgeois values he was cut off from the family as if he didnt exist. Alfred became a bus driver, had three children, but Arthur determined he would get none of his money, and the family never contacted him.

That said, I would definitely read the poems, or watch Terence Stamp or DiCaprio in the movies

Rating:
Summary: The diary of a mad man
Review: Sometimes the line is blurred between being a genius and being a mad man. Rimbaud is such a case. While I am not convinced by Robb's thesis that Rimbaud is a poet-genius who has been grossly overlooked, one cannot help but being at awe to read about his extremely outrageous behaviour and his unconventional life style. His relationship with Verlain is one of the highlight of this book. But his later life in search of his identity in various exotic locale, is much more interesting.

Robb has done a great job in telling this unusual life. But somehow his story telling is not as fluid as his "Victor Hugo" book which I admire very much. Compared to his work on Victor Hugo, one can't help but feel that this Rimbaud's book has been put too hastily.

Rating:
Summary: The Tale of a Mad Angel
Review: The best book to read on Rimbaud. Robb dispells myths, only to replace them with the even more awe-inspiring reality. His writing is perfect for this biography; it has a narrative tone, with occasional quips and asides, but most importantly it never gets in the way of understanding the fascinating life of the man behind the poetry.

Rating:
Summary: The Rimbaud nobody knew
Review: This amazing biography by Graham Robb (following his other amazing biographies of Balzac and Hugo) is one of the best books I have ever read on any subject.

Rimbaud a hero? Think again! The details are all in here, and they show us a Rimbaud who was an advanced sociopath, stabbing people, pouring sulfuric acid into their drinks,...constantly drunk and on drugs, always avoiding work and treating other people hatefully. Whew! Yet somehow, in some way, he retains at least some of our sympathy. His contemporaries report that he "stank of genius," and they tolerated all of his enormous faults simply because they wanted to be around him.

If you have seen "Total Eclipse," this book will give you all the information which you couldn't find in the movie. It's fascinating, and it's really good at handling the poetry as well.

Highest recommendation!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This is one of the best biographies I have read. Not only does it cover Rimbaud's turbulent years as one of the most infamous and brilliant poets in French literature, it also does a good job covering his years in Africa after he had renounced his "previous life". It is still quite difficult to discern what really motivated Rimbaud to lead the life he lead, but it is certainly a great pleasure to read about it. Similar to Genet, Rimbaud lead a dangerous and brave life, and now it is possible to see perhaps how personal his mysterious and beautiful poetry really was.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but not as good as Starkie bio.
Review: This was the fourth biography on Rimbaud I'd read, and I found it the most accessible. However, the very best biography for my money, warts and all (she perpetuates a couple false myths about R.), is the Enid Starkie biography from 1961. Unlike Robb, she gives an analysis of many of his poems in the context of his life and times, while capably commenting on other personalities and poets of the era in which he lived. Still, even Robb in this biography, despite insisting on dismantling the so-called Rimbaud myths, perpetuates the "bad-boy genius" image here and there. If one reads his letters (see "I Promise to Be Good", Wyatt Mason, 2003) they will see that "...it is not generally appreciated how methodical a student of poetry Rimbaud was . . . Rimbaud made himself a poet by a long, involved, and sober study of the history of poetry."

But this is a review of Robb's book, and I do recommend it because it's the most up-to-date version of Rimbaud (as of 2003) and probably includes the most accurate chronology of all bios to date, as well as more details of his time with Verlaine, and in Africa (for which, Charles Nicholl's book, "Somebody Else: Rimbaud in Africa", 1997 is the best).

Overall, I think Robb's biography is the best modern introduction to Rimbaud (besides his poems, of course) for someone unfamiliar with him at all. His writing syle is less pedantic, and more journalistically captivating than Starkie, and others (I suppose it's a matter of taste, background, and direction, but it's probably impossible to find any dull biographies about Rimbaud anyway). Rimbaud continues to seduce and attract modern poets, wanderers, and seekers alike, and this biography is one more key to the fullest portrait possible of Rimbaud we'll ever get.

"Or, tout dernierement m'etant sur le point de faire le dernier couac! j'ai songe a rechercher la clef du festin ancien, ou je reprendrais peut-etre appetit."

But just lately, finding myself on the point of uttering the last croak, I thought of looking for the key to the old feast, where perhaps I might find my appetite again.