10 years after Rimbaud’s death, a journalist investigates and meets the witnesses of his life.

“How can one, as a teenager, demonstrate an incredible talent to the point of becoming a kind of fairground beast in the Parisian literary circles, and at twenty years old, suddenly give up poetry to go and sell coffee and pots and pans in Africa? This is what we usually call the Rimbaud mystery (…) To help us to pierce the mystery, there are fortunately witnesses. ( …). All agree to confirm the prophecy (…) “Nothing banal will germinate in this head”. (Jean Rouaud)

Jean Rouaud has always put his talent as an author at the service of one of the greatest names in literature, who has survived as much by his poetry as by the contempt with which he turned his back on it. Jean Portante will talk with the author of Vous avez connu Rimbaud? (in collaboration with Rachid Mairaï; Duno Graphic, 2021) and La Constellation Rimbaud (Grasset & Fasquelle, 2021) about the work and the tumultuous life of Arthur Rimbaud.