Jennifer Mackenzie reviews Rimbaud in Java by Jamie James

Rimbaud in Java

by Jamie James

Editions Didier Millet

Singapore , 2011

Reviewed by JENNIFER MACKENZIE

Of the biographies of poets, it is that of Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) which continues to perplex and confound. Why is it that someone so gifted should abandon poetry at the age of twenty-one for the life of a trader, filling his head with accounting ledgers rather than visionary poetry? Why did he, in 1876, enlist in the Royal Netherlands Army, taking an arduous journey to Java, only to remain there for a few short weeks before returning to France, most probably, though not conclusively, on the