Recollections and reflections of Rimbaud’s teacher and friend.

Nicholl, Charles, Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa 1880–91 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1997). The latest account of Rimbaud’s last years. Lively and detailed.

Robb, Graham, Rimbaud (London: Picador, 2000). A lively and absorbing critical biography, very substantial.

Starkie, Enid, Arthur Rimbaud (London: Faber & Faber, 1938, revised 1947 and 1961). This has been the benchmark critical biography for decades, though some of its findings are now disputed.

Underwood, Vernon, Rimbaud et l’Angleterre (Paris: Nizet, 1976). A scholarly work on Rimbaud’s time in, and relationship with, England.

Critical Studies

Bonnefoy, Yves, Rimbaud par lui-même (Paris: Seuil, 1961, 1994), trans. Paul Schmidt (New York: Harper & Row, 1973). A profound, illuminating study by a major contemporary poet.

Bouillane de Lacoste, Henry de, Rimbaud et le problème des ‘Illuminations’ (Paris: Mercure de France, 1959). A significant contribution to scholarship.

Brunel, Pierre, Rimbaud: Projets et réalisations (Paris: Champion, 1983). A shrewd discussion, with an interesting section on ‘objective poetry’.

Butor, Michel, Improvisations sur Rimbaud (Paris: La Différence, 1989). Twelve essays on aspects of Rimbaud’s work by a major French ‘new novelist’.

Camus, Albert, L’Homme révolté (Paris: Gallimard, 1951). This includes a short appraisal of Rimbaud, in terms of philosophical revolt, seeing his work, but not his life, as exemplary.

Chadwick, Charles, Études sur Rimbaud (Paris: Nizet, 1960). Interesting on the dating of some works, and for its classifications of Illuminations by theme.

—— Rimbaud (London: Athlone Press, 1977). A good, if slightly prejudiced, general introduction.

Étiemble [René], Le Mythe de Rimbaud. (Paris: Gallimard, 1952–68). A huge (four-volume), largely bibliographical undertaking; it has done much to dispel more fanciful notions about Rimbaud.

Fowlie, Wallace, Rimbaud (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965). A critical survey.

Frohock, W. M., Rimbaud’s Poetic Practice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963). A sensitive and sensible evaluation.

Gengoux, Jacques, La Pensée poétique de Rimbaud (Paris: Nizet, 1950). Rewarding, if often speculative.

Guyaux, André, Poétique du fragment, essai sur les ‘Illuminations’ de Rimbaud (Neuchâtel: La Baconnière, 1985). This reading by an eminent Rimbaud scholar has led to considerable academic debate.

Hackett, Cecil A., Rimbaud: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). A useful general introduction; one of several studies by this leading Rimbaud scholar.

—— ‘Aube’, in P. H. Nurse (ed.), The Art of Criticism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969). A persuasive, detailed analysis of one prose poem from Illuminations.

Murphy, Steve, Le Premier Rimbaud ou l’apprentissage de la subversion (Paris and Lyon: Editions du CNRS, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1990). One of the best studies of Rimbaud’s work of 1869–72, by a leading contemporary Rimbaud authority.

—— Rimbaud et la ménagerie impériale (Paris and Lyon: Editions du CNRS, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1991). A detailed examination of Rimbaud’s satirical approach to Napoleon III and the Second Empire.

Noulet, Émilie, Le Premier visage de Rimbaud (Brussels: Palais des Académies, 1973). Contains detailed analysis of certain poems.

Osmond, Nick, Arthur Rimbaud: Illuminations (London: Athlone Press, 1976). A thorough, well-annotated analysis of all the prose poems in Illuminations.

Renéville, Rolland de, Rimbaud le Voyant (Paris: Au sans pareil, 1929). Tries, unconvincingly, to show that Rimbaud’s work is a unified body of thought.

Richard, Jean-Pierre, Poésie et profondeur (Paris: Seuil, 1955).