A Season in Hell

Written by Rimbaud at the age of 18 in the wake of his tempestuous affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, "A Season in Hell" has been a touchstone for anguished poets, artists, and lovers for more than a century. This stunning volume presents Rimbaud's poem in the original French and in English translation. Each of the poem's eight sections if accompanied by a dazzling Mapplethorpe photograph that brilliantly complements the work's shifting moods .

This book brings together two of the most notorious artistic rebels of their respective eras, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) and Robert Mapplethorpe. Rimbaud wrote most of his work as a teenager, then renounced poetry to pursue an adventurous but unprofitable career as a soldier, coffee trader, and gun runner. The controversial and highly regarded photographer Robert Mapplethorpe earned acclaim during the late 1980s for his nudes, portraits, and still lifes. Books with Bulfinch are: Robert Mapplethorpe (1988), Some Women (1989) and Flowers (1990). Paul Schmidt has translated the complete works of Rimbaud as well as selected works of Chekhov, Pushkin and other Russian authors.