book data
134 ratings, 4.22 average rating, 15 reviews
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published
September 1st 1991
by BOA Editions
binding
Paperback, 176 pages
isbn
0918526892
(isbn13: 9780918526892)
description
poetry, tr Bertrand Mathieu, bilingual
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 174)
Read in November, 1979
recommends it for:
gloomy doomy kids
When I was a mere slip of a boy and my flesh tasted like chicken and goth had not quite creeped into non-existence I would sulk in dimly lit buses reading Rimbaud.
"Illuminations" reminds me of Baudelaire's "Paris Spleen" in that these are not poems so much as they are prose pieces, little snatches of light of varying shades. This is good reading on rainy nights.
"Illuminations" reminds me of Baudelaire's "Paris Spleen" in that these are not poems so much as they are prose pieces, little snatches of light of varying shades. This is good reading on rainy nights.
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i read this during my personal season in hell that i thought would never end. it was good to know that rimbaud and i have some things in common.
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Rimbaud skillfully draws the reader into the world of damnation, the world of the self. He confronts the essence of nihilism and self-loathing in this remarkable poem, composed at the astonishing age of 19. Like Dante, Milton, and perhaps Pound, Rimbaud is able to bend the language to engage the reader in a transcendental understanding of the human condition and psyche.
There are poems in here of promethean beauty that prefigure the rebellious spirit of French artistic bohemians in the dawn ...more
There are poems in here of promethean beauty that prefigure the rebellious spirit of French artistic bohemians in the dawn ...more
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Read in January, 1997
If someone told me this was the greatest work of literature anyone had ever created, I wouldn't necessarily disagree. Rimbaud's style, not quite poetry and certainly not prose, took the writing world by storm and changed it forever. His work has gone on to influence everyone from Joyce to the Beats to John Lennon. Dark, tortured, tragic, magnificent, and solely unique and original even after a hundred years. It'd be difficult to think of someone more influential than Rimbaud and the short bu...more
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Read in January, 2006
The most passionate collection of poetry I've ever read. At times hateful, raging, self-deprecating, pitiful, and serene. The only English translation worth reading is the one by Bertrand Mathieu. This is simply the two greatest books of French poetry collected into one. He speaks like a prophet condemning himself to hell. His prose poetry is striking, has beautiful cadence, powerful imagery, and is delivered with tremendous ferocity.
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poets repulse me with their god forsaken wankerings. However, I've decided that I can include most other artists and humans for that matter, in the repulsive category so I decided to set my hatred aside and get this book. I'm really enjoying it.
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3 comments
recommends it for:
maladjusted high school students; stoned people
There are a couple of things in this book that I thought were deep and beautiful when I read them in high school and now all I think is that I gotta learn more French because I bet it's even weirder in French.
From star to star, bitches.
From star to star, bitches.
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recommends it for:
Anyone looking for good Rimbaud translation
Translations matter with Rimbaud. Francophile extraordinaire and Rimbaud enthusiast Dennis Cooper rates Enid Peschel Rhodes' translation published by Oxford Univrersity Press as the best. For my taste, he's absolutely right.
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Read in January, 2006
Like Rilke, I don't care for him as much as everyone else seems to, but the occasional great line or section makes him worth reading anyway. He has more energy than Rilke.
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i was given this book. i was given a very ratty, notated copy of this book. it made me want to die young while attempting to cross the alps on foot in february.
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Kaleidoscopic. Even in translation (here by Bertrand Mathieu, who has a good ear), Rimbaud's most free-roving work could do hauntingly well set to music.
If you're into symbolist and surrealist writings, this is a great book to gobble up. Includes both A Season in Hell and Illuminations.
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Bertrand Mathieu turned me away from Rimbaud; Lousie Varese turned me back on; and Enid Rhodes made my feet twitch.
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Read in September, 1994
one of the best to write poetry, ever, and this is his definitive collection. reverberates to this day.
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Read in January, 1992
recommends it for:
a cool pissed off teenager
love the drunken boat
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