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"The man was tall, well-built, almost athletic, with a perfectly oval face of an angel in exile, with untidy light brown hair and eyes of a disturbing pale blue"

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Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was born in Charleville Charleville, in the Ardennes, on October 20, 1854. His father, Captain of Infantry Frédéric Rimbaud and his mother Vitalie Cuif, who came from a farming family of Ardennes, married in 1853. Arthur had an elder brother, Frédéric and two sisters, Vitalie and Isabelle, respectively born in 1858 and in 1860.

Their father joined his regiment in Grenoble for good, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves. After his time in the army, he chose to retire to Dijon rather than return home. Deeply hurt, his wife no longer talked about him. The children were very strictly educated, because their mother feared that they would follow the bad example of their father and their maternal Uncles Cuif.

The two boys entered the Rossat Institute. In 1865, they entered Charleville College, where Arthur met Ernest Delahaye, who remained his most faithful friend.

As a brilliant student and a model pupil, he won many prizes, especially in rhetoric. When he was thirteen years old, he secretly sent a tribute to the Imperial Prince, who had just taken his first communion. He wrote his first lines in Latin. In 1869, he won the first prize in an academic contest for Ver Erat, The Angel and The Child, and Jugurtha. One of his professors from his third year, Mr. Pérette said about him: "Intelligent, as much as you want, but he has eyes and a smile which I do not like. He will end badly: in any case, nothing banal will germinate in that head: he will be the genius of good or evil!"

In January 1870, the Review published his first lines: the Orphans' New Year gifts. Then a new teacher of rhetoric, Georges Izambard, himself a poet, arrived from Paris. He became fond of Arthur and made him happy by letting him use his personal library. Mrs Rimbaud, however, strongly disapproved for she thought that some of the books would corrupt her son.

On May 24, 1870, hoping to be published in the contemporary Parnassus, Arthur sent to Theodore Banville: Sensation, Ophelia and Credo in Unam (first Sun and Flesh version), then the following year What we say to the poet about flowers. He was not discouraged by these failures.

In 1871, France waged war against Prussia. Everything was in chaos. Izambard left for Douai allowing Arthur access to his library. Arthur walked round and round and became really bored: "My city is exceptionally idiotic among all the small provincial towns" he wrote to Izambard."

On August 29th, for the first time, he ran away to Paris, via Charleroi. His ticket was not valid for the whole journey and he was imprisoned in Mazas. Following the intervention of Izambard, he was released and went to Douai to spend fifteen days at the Gindre Ladies' house, Izambard's elderly aunts. He was not greeted warmly on his return.

On October 7th, Arthur ran away again for Belgium (Charleroi), then Brussels, before returning to the Gindre Ladies' house in Douai. There, he wrote up his poems and sent them to Paul Demeny, a young poet introduced to him by Yzambard.

On November 1st, Rimbaud's mother asked the Police to bring him back home. The college buildings were requisitioned as a hospital and the school was closed. So Arthur spent a lot of time in Charleville's library.
On February 25, 1871, he ran away one more time to Paris, by train. Completely broke, he wandered the streets for fifteen days and finally went back on foot to Charleville on March 10th.

When the Commune broke out in Paris on March 18th, he sympathised with the insurrectionists. He expressed his feelings in Parisian Song of War, Jeanne-Marie's Hands, Paris is Repeopled. He became rebellious and anarchist and violent. He started to drink and enjoyed himself to behave scandalously. He gave in to the "disorder of all the senses". He explained his behaviour and feelings to his friends Izambard and Demeny in two letters known as "of the Visionary". He asked Demeny to burn the poems that he previously sent to him, judging them outmoded. Fortunately, his friend did not do it.

At the end of August, he wrote and sent poems to Verlaine. Charmed, Verlaine invited him to Paris: "Come, dear great soul, you are called, you are awaited". Mid-September, Rimbaud went to Paris with his poem, the Drunken Boat.
Verlaine was married to the rich girl of a middle-class man, Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville, and was living in his parents-in-law's home. The arrival of Arthur caused a scandal in the family, because of his rude, untidy and insulting behaviour. He was so undesirable, that he was finally lodged with different friends of Verlaine. Verlaine subsequently returned to drinking and spent most of his time hanging about with Rimbaud. They kept company with the Circle Zutique of poets, created by Charles Cros, who met at Hotel Des Etrangers, boulevard Saint-Michel, and contributed to the collective Album of the group. Ernest Cabaner, the barman, was teaching piano to Rimbaud with the method of musical chromaticism, colouring notes and giving them the sound of a vowel (It seems to be the real source of Rimbaud's inspiration for the poem Vowels). Arthur was his assistant in the club for some months, and was allowed to sleep in the room. But with his sullen and aggressive attitude, and being rude to everybody, Arthur was quickly frowned on by all. Verlaine was supporting him. Their love affair was a scandal. They led a dissolute life and haunted Cafes, getting drunk on Absinthe. A victim of marital violence, Mathilde ended up fleeing with her son.

In March, Verlaine promised to break off his relationship with Rimbaud, who had returned to Charleville, so she agreed to go back home. Back to Paris in May, Arthur was so disappointed by his Parisian experience and by Verlaine who preferred his life as a good father, that he decided to travel, with or without him. He contacted Verlaine and succeeded in persuading him to go with him. Together they left for Brussels in July 1872. Mathilde wanted to bring her husband back home, so she joined them with her mother. But Verlaine preferred to follow Rimbaud and abandoned her at the station, near the frontier. She went back to Paris and asked for a legal separation.

At the beginning of September, they went from Ostend to London. They saw the sea for the first time. On their arrival, they contacted the exile Communards, like Eugène Vermersh and Félix Regamey. They were helped to settle near Soho, 34 Howland Street. Being enthusiastic about the town, Rimbaud composed part of the Illuminations and Verlaine wrote the "Romances sans Paroles".

But Verlaine was harassed by the papers resulting of his wife's request for a legal separation. She could cite his fits of violence due to alcohol and his abnormal behaviour in Brussels against him. He lost heart and lamented, overwhelmed with remorse. Following his mother's advice, Rimbaud went back to Charleville in December.
He stayed three weeks there. Depressed and sick, Verlaine called for help desperately. Arthur and Verlaine's mother went to his bedside.

Life went on as before with walks, reading and studies. On April 4th, they left London. Verlaine went to Namur, always obsessed by the idea of being reconciled with his wife. But she refused all contact. All alone, Arthur returned to Roche on April 11th and started to write a Pagan Book, or Negro Book, which became a Season in Hell.

At the beginning of July, he agreed to go back to London with Verlaine, via Liège and Anvers. They settled in 8 Great College street, Camden Town. They improved their English and gave French lessons. Their strange love affair begun to be known in the Communard circle of London, which expelled them. It was mentioned in the reports of the police informers, who infiltrated the group. Verlaine felt that his reputation was lost and began to see that he would lose his case against his wife if the rumour was heard in Paris. He started to drink again. Arthur was more and more unbearable. They began to fight more and more often with fists, but also with knifes. Following a violent argument, Verlaine left Rimbaud and took refuge in Brussels, still hoping that her wife would come and that they would be reconciled. Very emotional, he spoke about suicide in his letters. His mother joined him and he sent a telegram for Arthur to come too.

On July 10th, understanding that Rimbaud absolutely wanted to go back to Paris, Verlaine fired two shots from a revolver at him. One of them hits him in the wrist. After being treated in the Saint-Jean hospital, Arthur made his way towards the station. As Verlaine was threatening him again, he took fright and called a policeman. Verlaine was taken to the police station and the day after, he was transferred to the prison of Petites-Carmes. He was subjected to a medico-legal examination which concluded that he had homosexual habits. On August 8th, he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment by Brussels magistrates' court for assaults and grievous bodily harm, and got a 200F fine, in spite of Rimbaud's declaration in his favour. Arthur was hospitalised so the bullet could be removed from his wrist.

On July 20th, after having signed an act of renunciation of his complaint the day before, Arthur was in despair and went back to Roche. He locked himself up in his loft to finish a Season in Hell.

In August, he brought the manuscript to a printer in Brussels. October 22nd, being unable to pay for the printer, he took some copies, gave them to rare friends, and abandoned the edition of his book. But he only found hostility: everybody reproached him about the decline of Paul. He left one signed specimen for Verlaine in prison.

In March 1874, he went back to London with Germain Nouveau, another poet who helped him to write up the Illuminations. They settled in 178 Stamford Street and gave French lessons. Nouveau went back to Paris in June, probably to escape Arthur's bad reputation which could damage his promising young career. Depressed, Arthur wrote a letter to his family and in July, he received a visit from his mother and sister Vitalie. On July 31st, he left London for a job in Scarborough. He went back to Charleville at the end of December.

Until 1879, he wandered on foot mostly, throughout Europe.

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