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Somebody Else: Arthur Rimbaud in Africa, 1880-91 Hardcover – 19 May 1997
by
Charles Nicholl
(Author)
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This is the story of Rimbaud's 'lost years', the years after he turned his back on poetry, and fame, and France, for a life of wandering and obscurity in the wilds of East Africa. In this compelling biographical study, Charles Nicholl pieces together the shadowy story of Rimbaud's life as a trader, explorer and gun-runner in Africa. We follow his trail across the Somali desert, through the backstreets of Djibouti, and into the highlands of Ethiopia. We glimpse him with his Abyssinian mistress in Aden; walking the souks of Cairo with twenty pounds of gold round his waist; crossing the Danakil desert with a camel-train of Remington rifles. The journey leads also into the strange psychological terrain of Rimbaud's obsessive desire to escape, to disappear. For in Africa, as Charles Nicholl shows in this fascinating book, Rimbaud seems to have lived out that mysterious pronouncement of his teenage years: 'Je est un autre' - I is someone else...
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House UK
- Publication date19 May 1997
- ISBN-100224043765
- ISBN-13978-0224043762
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Product description
About the Author
Charles Nicholl's books include two acclaimed travel books, The Fruit Palace and Borderlines, The Reckoning - an investigation into the murder of Chirstopher Marlowe, for which he won the Crime Writers' Association Non-fiction Gold Dagger Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and The Creature in the Map.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House UK (19 May 1997)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0224043765
- ISBN-13 : 978-0224043762
- Item Weight : 743 g
- Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews
3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
20 global ratings
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Top reviews from other countries

Peter Murrell
4.0 out of 5 stars
I did wonder whether he gave up poetry so suddenly because he had exhausted what he wanted to say or was simply disgusted by the
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 31 March 2016Verified Purchase
The biographer of Rimbaud in his later years has the problem not only that his subject was not a very likeable person but that not much happened. He endured privations in the African heat, he traded, he made some arduous journeys, then his health failed and he died in his thirties. Of course, the fact that he was a precocious poet in his teens, whose fame continued to grow long after he lost interest in poetry, gives a certain fascination to the later years. The material for those years is thin but it has been assiduously gathered by Nicholl and he presents it well. I just found at the end that I didn't much care about Rimbaud's fate. I did wonder whether he gave up poetry so suddenly because he had exhausted what he wanted to say or was simply disgusted by the artistic life he led in Paris and elsewhere. Nicholl is unable to provide any definitive answers since Rimbaud would immediately change the subject if anyone mentioned his earlier years. I confess the poetry (extracts of which are quoted) has no appeal for me whatsoever, which adds to my overall lack of engagement in the story.
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sunbambino
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Savage' Rimbaud
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 November 2019Verified Purchase
This is a considered and measured approach to the last years in the Horn of Africa, imaginatively written, well researched, highly recommended
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Laurence
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 December 2013Verified Purchase
The author manages to write a fascinating account of the last years of Rimbaud with relatively limited historical information. Excellent.

Immortalist
1.0 out of 5 stars
I developed a headache!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 September 2015Verified Purchase
I purchased this biography after seen the film Total Eclipse Total Eclipse (film) with Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) and Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio).
I was looking forward to the read. I stopped reading when I got to page 30. I absolutely could not stand the fact that this book had so much French words/sentences/phrases. And the style of writing, it did not agree with me. I developed a headache.
I was looking forward to the read. I stopped reading when I got to page 30. I absolutely could not stand the fact that this book had so much French words/sentences/phrases. And the style of writing, it did not agree with me. I developed a headache.

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 January 2016Verified Purchase
perfect