Arthur Rimbaud

Arthur Rimbaud is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of poetry. A true prodigy, he had fully arrived as a poet and composed three acknowledged masterpieces--A Season in Hell, The Drunken Boat and Illuminations--before the age of 20. He had also engaged in a two-year affair with another extremely talented French poet of the fin de si cle, Paul Verlaine. Although no one doubts that the affair took place, its meaning has remained almost as controversial in the 20th century as it was in the 19th. Some have hailed Rimbaud as a gay icon, while others have tried to cast doubt on whether his relationship with the older poet revealed his real preferences or was simply an experiment intended to further his project of ""disordering the senses."" Ivry's brief biography, the second title in the Outlines series dedicated to exploring the ways that homosexuality has affected the lives of artists, writers and other creative people, delves deeply into the relationship, and especially its sexual aspects, referring to the pair simply as ""V&R."" Ivry (Paradise for the Portuguese Queen) holds back no detail, whether it be possible dalliances with other men, misogynistic outbursts, graphically sexual poems, medical reports or the couple's well-documented public s&m games (which ended with Rimbaud in the hospital with a gunshot wound and Verlaine in jail). In the end, marshaling overwhelming evidence, Ivry ensures that his subject's story isn't set too straight, and demonstrates that Rimbaud was indeed self-consciously and gladly a lover of men. (Mar.)