Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library) - Hardcover

Rimbaud, Arthur; Mason, Wyatt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679642307 ISBN 13: 9780679642305

Publisher: Modern Library, 2002

Synopsis

Enduring icon of creativity, authenticity, and rebellion, and the subject of numerous new biographies, Arthur Rimbaud is one of the most repeatedly scrutinized literary figures of the last half-century. Yet almost thirty years have elapsed without a major new translation of his writings. Remedying this state of affairs is Rimbaud Complete, the first and only truly complete edition of Rimbaud’s work in English, translated, edited, and introduced by Wyatt Mason.

Mason draws on a century of Rimbaud scholarship to choreograph a superbly clear-eyed presentation of the poet’s works. He arranges Rimbaud’s writing chronologically, based on the latest manuscript evidence, so readers can experience the famously teenaged poet’s rapid evolution, from the lyricism of “Sensation” to the groundbreaking early modernism of A Season in Hell.

In fifty pages of previously untranslated material, including award-winning early verses, all the fragmentary poems, a fascinating early draft of A Season in Hell, a school notebook, and multiple manuscript versions of the important poem “O saisons, ô chateaux,” Rimbaud Complete displays facets of the poet unknown to American readers. And in his Introduction, Mason revisits the Rimbaud myth, addresses the state of disarray in which the poet left his work, and illuminates the intricacies of the translator’s art.

Mason has harnessed the precision and power of the poet’s rapidly changing voice: from the delicate music of a poem such as “Crows” to the mature dissonance of the Illuminations, Rimbaud Complete unveils this essential poet for a new generation of readers.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Wyatt Mason's thrilling new version of Rimbaud's complete works--the first in a generation and the definitive translation for our time--gives us the best opportunity thus far to experience Rimbaud as fully as possible in English. Here is Rimbaud uncensored: the savage maker, the scathing satirist, the rigorous Alchemist of the Word, the master of metrics and innovator of the prose poem, the figure who made himself absolutely modern, the poetic visionary whose work systematically disorders the senses and resonates with a strange beauty, an exultant splendor."
-Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry

"Wyatt Mason has located and tapped into Rimbaud's voice as it swings from gnarled to straight-ahead to mystic to raucous. Rimbaud would try anything. It's all here, poetry and prose, still glistening, still breathing."
-Roger Shattuck, author of Forbidden Knowledge and The Banquet Years
"Wyatt Mason's Rimbaud Complete is a welcome edition to the shelf of Rimbaud in English. His 'principle of readerly enjoyment' serves him as a sure guide in the difficult task of providing what he modestly calls an 'honest account' of the French originals rather than a 'replacement' for them. There is ample pleasure in these pages for readers with or without French. Mason's tireless zeal and endless inventiveness compel unfailing admiration."
-Arthur Goldhammer, Harvard University, winner of the French-American Foundation's Translation Prize (twice) and the American Literary Translators Association's Outstanding Translation Prize
.

About the Author

The poetic genius of Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) blossomed early and burned briefly. Nearly all of his work was composed when he was in his teens, before all trace of his literary life disappeared with him into the African desert of his later years. During the century following his death at thirty-seven, Rimbaud’s work and life have influenced generations of readers and writers. Radical in its day, Rimbaud’s writing took some of the first and most fundamental steps toward the liberation of poetry from the formal constraints of its history, and now represents one of the most powerful and enduring bodies of poetic expression in human history.

Wyatt Mason studied literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and the University of Paris. His first translation, Pierre Michon’s Masters and Servants, was a finalist for the French-American Foundation Translation Prize. He has translated five books by Michon, including the forthcoming The Origin of the World. His current projects include a translation of Arthur Rimbaud's complete correspondence, and a new edition of Dante’s La Vita Nuova, also for the Modern Library. His writing has appeared in The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.

Edition details

• Publisher: Modern Library
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0679642307
• ISBN 13: 9780679642305
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 656