Rimbaud in Java: The Lost Voyage - Softcover

James, Jamie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9814260827 ISBN 13: 9789814260824

Publisher: Didier Millet,Csi, 2011

Synopsis

In A Season in Hell, at the age of eighteen, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud predicted the rest of his life: 'My day is done; I'm leaving Europe. The sea air will burn my lungs; lost climes will tan my skin.' Three years later, in 1876, he joined the Royal Army of the Dutch Indies as an infantryman and sailed for Java, where he promptly deserted and fled into the jungle. It was the most enigmatic passage in his life crowded with puzzles and contrarieties.

In the first book devoted to Rimbaud's lost voyage to Asia, the novelist and critic Jamie James reviews everything that is known about the episode; from there, he imaginatively spirals into a reconstruction of what the poet must have seen and informed speculation about what he might have done, vividly recreating life in nineteenth-century Java along the way. Rimbaud in Java concludes with an inquiry into what the Orient represented in the poet's imagination, with a scandalous, amusing history of French orientalism. James' surprising book is a richly concentrated blend of biography, criticism and thought-travel, which brings into sharp focus this brief encounter between a great writer and a vanished world.

About this title

From the Publisher

- A unique reconstruction of French poet Arthur Rimbaud's fabled journey to the Orient.
- Compelling images of the people and places thought to have been encountered by Rimbaud.
- An 8-page full colour insert showcasing the works of Rimbaud and artists of the era, as well as scenes of Java.

About the Author

Jamie James is a former art critic for The New Yorker. He has lived in Indonesia since 1999, and co-owns two restaurants in Bali. He has contributed to The Atlantic Monthly and Condé Nast Traveller and published two novels, Andrew & Joey: A Tale of Bali and The Java Man, as well as The Snake Charmer, a biography of the legendary American field biologist Joe Slowinski.

Edition details

• Publisher: Didier Millet,Csi
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 9814260827
• ISBN 13: 9789814260824
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 136