Rimbaud in Java

At eighteen, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud proclaimed: “My day is done; I’m leaving Europe. The sea air will burn my lungs; lost climes will tan my skin.” Three years later, in 1876, he joined the Royal Army of the Dutch Indies and sailed for Java, where he promptly deserted and fled into the jungle. In the first book devoted to Rimbaud’s lost voyage to Asia, novelist and critic Jamie James reviews everything that is known about the journey; from there he imaginatively reconstructs what the poet must have seen and what he might have done, vividly recreating life in 19th-century Java along the way. Rimbaud in Java concludes with an inquiry into what the Orient represented in the poet’s imagination. James’s intriguing book is a richly concentrated blend of biography, criticism and thought-travel, bringing into sharp focus this brief encounter between a great writer and a vanished world. An 8-page full colour insert showcasing the works of Rimbaud and artists of the era, as well as scenes of Java.