Rimbaud et L’Algerie (review)

Those familiar with Rimbaud’s life know that Africa is his last adventure, once the phase of his poetic production has ended. In Rimbaud et l’Algérie, Hédi Abdel-Jaouad shows that Algeria has, in fact, been present in Rimbaud’s work from the very beginning of his poetic career, playing an important role in the creation of his poetic principles and ideals. Rimbaud et l’Algérie focuses on Jugurtha, an early text Rimbaud wrote in Latin at the age of 14 for a competition organized by the Académie de Douai in 1869. Jugurtha made an impression on the jury, who awarded him the prize. Unlike Abdel-Jaouad, however, the jury did not notice the text’s irony. Although these “vers de collège” have usually been dismissed, if not forgotten, by the majority of critics, Abdel-Jaouad holds them as a decisive political and poetic statement in Rimbaud’s career as a writer.