Rimbaud in Java: The Lost Voyage

In the year 1876, a 21 year old French poet Arthur Rimbaud completely abandoned writing and joined the Royal Army of the Dutch Indies as an infantryman and sailed for Java. After he landed there, however, he deserted the army, fled into the jungle, and then just disappeared.Part biography, part historical investigation, “Rimbaud in Java” by Jamie James is the reconstruction of everything that is known about Rimbaud’s rogue voyage, the informed speculation about what he might have seen and done, which in turn paints a vivid picture of what life was like in 19th century Java, that include colonial rule, pre-Islamic culture, and magic.It is also quite possibly the first history of Indonesia from the vantage point of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC).According to James, Rimbaud’s life “changed in so many fundamental ways around the time of the Java voyage that it almost seems at times as though a doomed doppelgänger was magically substituted for the shining youth that captivated Paris in 1872, as in a weird tale by Edgar Allan Poe.”Because, after few months missing Rimbaud did eventually resurfaces back in France, in his mother’s house tanned and bearded. He then went on to work in Scandinavia where he interpreted for a touring Danish circus, lived in a monastery for a while, became a stone quarry foreman in Cyprus, worked in the coffee trade business in Yemen, and briefly sold firearms in Ethiopia, before he died relatively young at the age of 37 not long after he got one of his legs amputated.But if you think all of these are crazy, wait until you read chapter 1 on what he’s done before the age of 21, which includes being shot at, wrecking a marriage, experimenting with homosexuality, learning multiple languages, crossing the Alps on foot, being arrested and jailed, and at one time got so drunk and passed out in Austria he ended up being robbed and stripped of everything but his street map of Vienna.Indeed, Arthur Rimbaud was a bizarre character, whose poetries went on to exert enormous influence on French literature, but whose incredibly random and daredevil life raises more questions than we can ever find answers.And his few months adventure in Java could be key to figure out this man.

Jamie James knows a thing or two about obsession. "There are thousands of people (we know who we are)," he writes, "who would take a lively interest if a pair of socks turned up in an old chest in Harar that could be proved to have belonged to Arthur Rimbaud." Where's Harar?You've guessed it: though cognizant of Rimbaud's stature as a forerunner of the Surrealists, the amour fou he shared in his gilded teenage years with the much older, not-pretty-at-all Paul Verlaine, and his part in inspiring Frederick Ashton's bewitching ballet "Illuminations" (to the Benjamin Britten score), I am not one of James's thousands. But as Daniel Mendelsohn's delicious New Yorker review of Bruce Duffy's biography "Disaster Was My God" recently proved, reading about Rimbaud can be great fun. No less was to be expected from Jamie James, whom I edited (full disclosure!) at Connoisseur in the 1980s and whom I count today as a friend. In years past, I have delighted in his account of a visit with Jorge Luis Borges, his exposé of waste at PBS, and his book-length study on the topos of the music of the spheres. Since 1999, James has been living in Bali, whence occasional bulletins and curiosa flow, always in his trademark deadpan style, encyclopedically informed, tartly undeceived.And so it is with "Rimbaud in Java," which James conceived as a novel but retrofitted to nonfiction, recognizing the futility of attempting to project himself into a mind as unfathomable as Rimbaud's. Instead he starts out by serving up just the facts, ma'am, slim pickens as they are. As Rimbaldians (ahem!) know, their idol sailed to Java as a fusilier in the Dutch Colonial Army. The fabled isle was the apogee of his life's journey. No sooner had he arrived, however, than he deserted, leaving a lacuna in his biography that James fills with an imaginative excursus on the Orient in the 19th-century European mind. Sprinklings of sex, pulp fiction, bogus science, and a cameo by Queen Victoria add spice to James's rijsftafel of guilty pleasures. In addition, there are wonderful images, many of them rare, from his private collection, plus generous helpings of Rimbaud's orphic poetry and prose as rendered in James's punctilious English. No, he has no translation for "baou," but then, neither has anyone else. James picks it up, pokes it, and turns it over, but in the end the vocable just sits there, on Rimbaud's page, as inexplicable as his thoughts and images.Whether "Rimbaud in Java" will win Rimbaud new readers, as JAmes says he hopes, is anybody's guess. I felt no such exploratory urge, honestly. On the other hand, the book may very well inspire readers to dig deeper into the Jamie James bibliography. Next on my list: "The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge."

as usual, too much said on the life and not on the work, at least it is original even as a pure lie, arthur was a coward, a mammies boy, of bad manners and doubtful aofish education. not possible to believe he wrote the best part of his poetry himself, but who cares, and little does it matter, the man is of no interests, but some verses, tales are gigantic, unreal for the period and ought to be repeated and taught rather than mix in is wasted existence. the book also uncover Saleh, the painter and it is worth reading just for Saleh. arthur remains a 1/4 divinity from high school onward, always fun to quote , recite, toss around with friends who like to be poetic. a must to read, with caution, do not swallow.

Jamie James is an excellent writer whose articles in the Wall Street Journal surprised and delighted me. His knowledge of the works of Arthur Rimbaud and landscape of Java inform the reader. He understands the canon of the poet, and attempts to fill in the blanks about this missing year and to put it in context of what Europeans knew and thought about the orient. Obviously, this won't replace the Steinmetz or Robb biographies of Rimbaud, but he knows the subject and tells a good story. I devoured this book in a day at the beach. Good job Mr. James!

This work is unique considering that so little is known about this period of Rimbaud's life.It is a very interesting and unassuming book.

Very enjoyable look & hypothesis of Rimbaud's time in Java - Helped greatly by other contemporary writers writtings of the place.Short & sweet volume that should please any Rimbaud admirer.4/5

An interesting speculation on what Rimbaud might have done in Java based on the limited evidence available. Lots of detail about Java and how Rimb might have reacted etc. Worth reading if you are a Rimbaud fanatic.