I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud (Modern

I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud (Modern Library Classics)

One of the most written-about literary figures in the past decade, Arthur Rimbaud left few traces when he abandoned poetry at age twenty-one and disappeared into the African desert. Although the dozen biographies devoted to Rimbaudâ€™s life depend on one main source for informationâ€”his own correspondenceâ€”a complete edition of these remarkable letters has never been published in English. Until now.

A moving document of decline, Rimbaudâ€™s letters begin with the enthusiastic artistic pronouncements of a fifteen-year-old genius, and end with the bitter what-ifs of a man whose life has slipped disastrously away. But whether soapboxing on the essence of art, or struggling under the yoke of self-imposed exile in the desert of his later years, Rimbaud was incapable of writing an uninteresting sentence. As translator and editor Wyatt Mason makes clear in his engaging Introduction, the letters reveal a Rimbaud very different from our expectations. Rimbaudâ€”presented by many biographers as a bohemian wild manâ€”is unveiled as â€œdiligent in his pursuit of his goals . . . wildly, soberly ambitious, in poetry, in everything.â€

I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud is the second and final volume in Masonâ€™s authoritative presentation of Rimbaudâ€™s writings. Called by Edward Hirsch â€œthe definitive translation for our time,â€ Masonâ€™s first volume, Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library, 2002), brought Rimbaudâ€™s poetry and prose into vivid focus. In I Promise to Be Good, Mason adds the missing epistolary pieces to our picture of Rimbaud. â€œThese letters,â€ he writes, â€œare proofs in all their varietyâ€”of impudence and precocity, of tenderness and rageâ€”for the existence of Arthur Rimbaud.â€ I Promise to Be Good allows English-language readers to see with new eyes one of the most extraordinary poets in history.

From the Hardcover edition.
Country USA
Brand Modern Library
Manufacturer Modern Library
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber Illustrated
Color Sky/Pale blue
ReleaseDate 2004-11-09
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812970159

Country	USA
Brand	Modern Library
Manufacturer	Modern Library
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	Illustrated
Color	Sky/Pale blue
ReleaseDate	2004-11-09
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812970159

I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud (Modern Library Classics)

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