A Season in Hell / Illuminations

A Season in Hell and Illuminations represent the complete poetic output of Arthur Rimbaud, who accomplished the extraordinary feat of revolutionizing French poetry before the age of twenty and then abandoning literature entirely. His incandescent prose poems and visionary verse laid the foundations of both Symbolism and Surrealism, establishing new possibilities for poetic language, imagery, and consciousness that poets have been exploring ever since.

Written in the aftermath of the Paris Commune and published between 1873 and 1886, Rimbaud's works emerged from a brief, volcanic creative period that ended when the poet abandoned literature at the age of twenty to pursue a life of travel and commerce in Africa. His influence on Surrealism and the Beat Generation has been profound, and the legend of the poet who burned so brightly and then vanished remains one of the most compelling stories in literary history.