Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition

I really don't understand any of the negative reviews on this page. Fowlie's translations are considered some of the best, even by scholars, and yes, this is the version that has inspired many other artists, actors, musicians, poets, and so forth. Fowlie's introduction is fitting and his inclusion of selected letters gives us an insightful look into the very language of Rimbaud. This is why I wanted to learn French. This keeps me learning French, and Rimbauds poems are absolutely stunning. If you want a good introduction to Rimbaud, select this volume of translations and then read Enid Starkie's wonderful biography of Rimbaud. Keep in mind this simple philosophy: the search for truth, history, and art is sometimes elusive and beyond our grasp. Rimbaud, to a certain extent, is always going to be elusive to the modern reader, and certainly personal and controversial for many reasons. However don't let this elusiveness stop you from buying this wonderful book.

If you want the complete works of Rimbaud in French this is your book. Great translation also!

I discovered in skimming this book that I don't really like Rimbaud. But it is probably a good book for those who like him.

Arthur Rimbaud is my favorite poet and this edition is a definitive one to say the least. Wallace Fowlie is the preeminent Rimbaud scholar, and aside from Josh Ashbery's translation of Illuminations, you would be hard-pressed to find a sweeter collection of Rimbaud's work.

Both poems and Illuminations are well translated here, giving a good feel of Rimbaud's impressionistic language, covering his extensive works. A pleasure to read!

Well organized. It is very helpful having the original French on one side for those of us who speak enough French but not quite fluently yet.

In two words - beyond spectacular. Sheer Genius this is not poetry it is magic. Dark Poetry, but sheer poetical genius. Rimbaud is well beyond the league of Verlaine his famous contemporary and friend. How can you leave this book without being touched by the sheer emotion. Here is the poet's cry from the very depth of the human abyss. I can reread Rimbaud endlessly and yet feel spellbound each time.

While the Penguin and Oxford Classics editions claim to be complete, they are not. This edition has several later works that those other editions simply do not include. The literal translation provided does not attempt to be its own art, which is often a translator's greatest virtue. It serves best as a set of cribs for someone who has some French, but whose French isn't perfect.

Complete works with original on the left.

Absolutely a worthy buy in splendid translation of Wallace Fowlie

Beautiful images are painted in your mind in just the right colours and exact shades using spoken words as the artist’s paint brush