The life of Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) was stranger than any fiction. In his youth, he was a clairvoyant denouncing the bourgeoisie, a breaker of prohibitions, an inventor of a new language and methods of perception, a poet, a traveler and a mercenary adventurer. At the age of twenty-one, Rimbaud turned his back on his literary achievements and, after several years of wandering, settled in Abyssinia, where he gained a reputation as a successful trader, authoritative explorer and interpreter of divine revelations. A brilliant biography of Graham Robb, one of the greatest authorities on French literature, brings together both aspects of his life, showing frenetic, unsettling poetry as the starting point for future exotic adventures. This is the story of Rimbaud, a pioneer in both spirit and body.