Arthur Une saison en enfer

by RIMBAUD

£25,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Rimbaud’s Season in Hell – Concealed for Thirty Years RIMBAUD, Arthur Une saison en enfer Brussels: Alliance Typographique ( M.-J. Poot et Compagnie ). 1873. 8vo. In the original publisher’s wrappers, printed in red and black, housed in a suede-lined black morocco-backed chemise with orange marbled sides, within a matching slipcase; pp. 53, [1 (blank)]; the slightest trace to foxing to fore-edge; else an excellent copy, uncut and unopened. First edition, in exceptional condition, of Rimbaud’s highly influential, confessional prose poem Une saison en enfer ( A Season in Hell ), the only work published at Rimbaud’s expense, printed shortly after the dissolution of his turbulent relationship with Verlaine. In Une saison en enfer , the eighteen-year-old Rimbaud (1854–1891) ‘gathers and reassembles the chaos of his life, leaving behind him the burning, powerful lines of a delayed poetic art’ ( En français dans le texte, trans. ). Rimbaud had met Verlaine in Brussels in July of 1873, where Verlaine shot him in the arm with a revolver. Verlaine, charged with attempted murder, was sentenced to two years in prison, and Rimbaud returned to Charleville to complete the present work, begun in April and finished in August. At the time of publication, only six copies were known, distributed by Rimbaud to Verlaine, Delahaye, and his childhood friend Ernest Milllot, amongst others, the remainder thought to have been destroyed by Rimbaud along with his manuscripts; the completion of Illuminati

• Binding: Hardcover

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