Illuminations (poems) - Publication and Critical Response

Publication and Critical Response

Two versions of Illuminations were published in 1886, each version arranging texts in orders different to the previous edition. Earning his living as a trader in the Horn of Africa at this time, Rimbaud was never personally involved in the publication of either edition. He did not leave Africa until 1891 when he was sick to the point of death.

Publication history

On Verlaine's release from prison in February 1875, Rimbaud entrusted him with the manuscript known today as Illuminations with the mission to mail it to Germain Nouveau in Brussels. Intent on an extended tour of Europe, Rimbaud had asked Nouveau to secure a Belgian publisher in his absence. Soon after sending the manuscript to Nouveau, however, Verlaine was seized with remorse: Why had he not searched for a publisher himself? At Verlaine's request, Nouveau returned the manuscript two years later at a meeting in London in 1877. With a view to publishing the complete works, Verlaine inserted into the original manuscript poems written in 1872 along with texts Rimbaud had given to Nouveau. Several months later, Verlaine loaned the manuscripts to the composer Charles de Sivry (the half-brother of Verlaine's estranged wife, Mathilde Mauté) with the aim of their being set to music. Learning that her half-brother was in possession of Rimbaud's texts, Mathilde expressly forbade de Sivry to return the manuscripts to Verlaine or to anyone else likely to publish them. It was not until nine years later, in 1886, after Mathilde had divorced Verlaine and remarried, that she rescinded her publication ban. Still seeking revenge over the destruction of her marriage by Rimbaud, Mathilde prohibited Verlaine from ever regaining possession of his former lover's manuscripts.

De Sivry confided Rimbaud's texts to Louis Cardonel with the proviso that Verlaine was not to be involved in their publication. Cardonel approached Gustave Kahn, editor of the literary magazine La Vogue, who agreed to publish the work along with a sonnet by Rimbaud in 1886. At Kahn's request, art critic and journalist Felix Fénéon arranged the order of the texts by respecting pages that linked the end of a text and the start of another. Inserted at random were verse poems and a few isolated pages. Despite these preparations, only 35 out of a total of 42 texts were published in La Vogue between May 13 and June 21 due to an obscure dispute between those associated with the project. Later in the year, Kahn commissioned Verlaine to write a preface to the still untitled suite of poems for their publication in book form by Les publications de La Vogue in October 1886. Verlaine gave them their collective name Illuminations or "coloured plates", a title that Rimbaud had earlier proposed as a sub-title. The publishers' dispute ultimately resulted in a dividing up of the manuscripts and their dispersal. Rimbaud died without the benefit of knowing that his manuscripts had not only been published but were lauded and studied, having finally gained the recognition he had strived for.

In 1895, an edition claiming to be the "complete works" of Rimbaud, with a new preface by Verlaine, was published by Vanier éditions. Since then, there have been many publications of Rimbaud’s Illuminations, both in the original French and in translation.

Critical opinion
Rimbaud was the subject of an entire chapter in Paul Verlaine’s Les Poètes Maudits, showing the older poet's devotion to and belief in his young lover. He also wrote an introduction to the Illuminations in the 1891 publication, arguing that despite the years past in which no one heard from Rimbaud his works were still relevant and valuable.

Albert Camus, famed philosopher and author, hailed Rimbaud as "the poet of revolt, and the greatest".