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Reviewed by:
  • Rimbaud: The Cost of Genius
  • Candice Nicolas
Oxenhandler, Neal. Rimbaud: The Cost of Genius. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2009.

Neal Oxenhandler’s Rimbaud: The Cost of Genius raises the question of the price Rimbaud paid to realize his “oeuvre.” He opts for a psychoanalytic approach – based mainly on Freud and Heidegger. The critic focuses on twenty-one poems from which he tries to excavate the underlying secret language. He points to suffering, jealousy, and misunderstanding that Rimbaud not only provoked but also endured. His goal is to relate the psychoanalysis of the genius’ personality to the poetry he created. Oxenhandler offers first a very brief exposition of the state of Rimbaud’s psychoanalytic criticism before he examines the poems in an original way – they may follow Nietzsche and Freud, or foreshadow Heidegger, Winnicott, and Klein. Part iv, for example, mostly deals with Illuminations’ pieces but also includes “Honte” from the Vers nouveaux, while Part [End Page 196] vi is dedicated to one Illumination—“Villes ii”—and the whole Saison en Enfer. The book closes on “The Death of Rimbaud,” an appendix already exiled from the rest of the analysis by its smaller font. This final chapter mixes personal souvenirs from the author and from another great Rimbaldian of the century, Wallace Folie, as well as Isabelle’s remembrances of her brother’s so-called reconversion.

Although the research work is meticulously done, one cannot help but mention the fact that the author not only omits the Rimbaldian criticism of the past ten years, but also falls short in answering his own question. He takes us to Rimbaud’s poetic universe yet sticks closely—too closely—to the poet’s life. Oxenhandler comments on Rimbaud’s parents’ relationship by evoking very specific personal details, and events in his childhood that could mark him as a future poet. The psychoanalysis sinks into an emotional biography and almost impairs Rimbaud’s talents—and we know he had them all! Furthermore, the structure of the book itself tends to frustrate; too many chapters, some of which are very short, run into each other with no real transition. Despite the quality of the questions raised or the points made, the reader feels thwarted, with a wish for more expanded insights. Hence, a rather disappointing result to this quest.

Candice Nicolas
Bucknell University
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