Arthur Rimbaud wrote Illuminations in the early 1870s, and it appeared in print only in 1886. The book collects prose poems and a few verse pieces that break with traditional form and move through fragments of cities, fairs, seas, childhood, dawn and strange journeys. Titles like "Aube," "Villes," "Barbare" and "Départ" are among the best known. The language is dense and often hallucinatory, and its images are put together with little narrative logic.
It is for readers of French poetry and for anyone interested in the origins of Symbolism and modern poetry. The poems are brief and can be read in any order, though they reward slow rereading.
Deep, inward-looking and open-ended; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2012
- Publisher
- 12-21
- ISBN
- 9782266225397
- Language
- FR
