A Season in Hell is the only work which Arthur Rimbaud has made published by himself and was written in a painful moment of his life. It was started in April 1873 on his return from England when his relation with Paul Verlaine was becoming worse, and was finished in August after their final break-up.

It reports his sufferings close to madness which led him to the gates of death, the failure of his experiment to become a seer poet. It speaks about his disillusions, his doubts but also his hopes.

Arthur was back to Roche in April 1873 and in May, wrote to his friend Ernest Delahaye: "[...] I make small stories in prose, general title; Pagan book, or Negro book. It is stupid and innocent. O innocence! innocence, innocence, innoc..., plague![...]

I feel terribly uncomfortable. Not a book, not an inn that I can reach, not an incident in the street. What an horror that French countryside. My fate depends on that book, for which a half-dozen of atrocious stories are still to invent. How to invent atrocities here! I do not send stories to you, though I already have three of them, that costs so much! At last, that is! [... ]"

At the end of May, he met Verlaine again and they both went to Belgium then embarked for England where they stayed until July. On July 3, following a violent argument, Verlaine left Rimbaud and went to Brussels, with the hope to be finally reconciled with his wife. On July 8, Rimbaud joined him over there, and on July 10, as he absolutely wanted to go back to Paris, Verlaine fired two shots of revolver at him. He was imprisoned for 2 years. Slightly wounded in the left wrist, Arthur went back to Roche on July 20, after a few days spent at hospital (see all the details in the Documents section).

According to the memories of his wife Isabelle Rimbaud, Paterne Berrichon tells that hardly came back, without answering the words of welcome, Arthur slumped on a chair and burst into tears, saying: "O Verlaine!...Verlaine". He finished "A Season in Hell", locked up in the loft with his despair, groaning, sniggering, with cries of anger and curses.

He obtained from his mother an advance to have his book published. She tried to read the manuscript, but as she did not understand anything, she asked him: "What did you want to say?". "I wanted to say what it says, literally and in all the senses".

The book was published in October at the Belgian printer Jacques Poot and Co and Arthur went to Brussels to take some copies. He left one signed specimen for Verlaine in prison. He gave one to Delahaye, one to Millot, another friend of Charleville and sent 3 or 4 of them to Forain, for himself and for Parisian friends. He also went to Paris, but because of his bad reputation and the scandal of Brussels, his old acquaintances avoided him.

Back to Roche, disgusted, he burnt the last copies he has with some rough works, letters and papers, in the fireplace in front of his mother and his sister Isabelle. Being unable to pay for the printer, he abandoned the edition of his book so five-hundred other specimens were found in 1901 in the printing works warehouse by Leon Losseau, a Belgian scholar.