A Season in Hell, the Drunken Boat, and Illuminations

Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell is a prose poem loosely divided into nine parts. In one part of the poem the poet portrays quite transparently his own relationship with French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine. The two had a brief alcohol and drug fueled affair which finally came to end when Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the wrist in a drunken rage. A Season in Hell, which has been referred to as a pioneering example of modern symbolism, is included in this collection along with The Drunken Boat, a fragmented first-person narrative which vividly describes the drifting and sinking of a boat lost at sea. It is probably one of the best known works from Rimbaud’s early period. Also included in this edition is what is arguably Rimbaud’s masterpiece, Illuminations. A collection of forty-two poems almost all of which are in a prose format. Albert Camus hailed Rimbaud as the poet of revolt, and the greatest. This greatness can be readily seen in this exemplary collection of A Season in Hell, The Drunken Boat, and Illuminations. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper and follows the translations of James Sibley Watson, Lionel Abel, and Wallace Fowlie.