It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Arthur Rimbaud's poetry on subsequent practitioners of the genre. His impact on the Surrealist movement has been widely acknowledged, and a host of poets, from André Breton to André Freynaud, have recognized their indebtedness to Rimbaud's vision and technique. He was the enfant terrible of French poetry in the second half of the nineteenth century and a major figure in symbolism.

Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born in Charleville in northeastern France on 20 October 1854, the second son of an army captain, Frédéric Rimbaud, and Marie-Cathérine-Vitalie Rimbaud, née Cuif. He had an older brother, Frédéric, born in 1853, and two younger sisters: Vitalie, born in 1858, and Isabelle, born in 1860. The father was absent during most of Rimbaud's childhood. Rimbaud's difficult relationship with his authoritarian mother is reflected in many...