![]() ![]() One morning Verlaine came home from the market with two kippers and a bottle of oil. Their infamous relationship had always been a stormy one, with fights involving razors and knives, but things reached a critical point when they were living in Camden. Yet, neither of them had much money and they advertised in the Daily Telegraph offering lessons in French, Latin and literature. While in London, they were both at the height of their poetic powers and wrote poetry that remains central to 19 th-century French literature: Verlaine much of his Romances sans paroles and Rimbaud his Illuminations. They initially settled in Fitzrovia and became part of Soho’s expat dissident set, attending meetings led by Karl Marx – though they probably would have preferred the Epicurean Soho of the late 20 th century, as neither of them was particularly politically minded, Rimbaud advocating the “derangement of the senses”. Nothing much seems to have changed on that front! He described the city as “prudish, but with every vice on offer” and the inhabitants as being “permanently drunk, despite ridiculous bills on drunkenness”. Verlaine was captivated by the “incessant railways on splendid cast-iron bridges” and the “brutal, loud-mouthed people in the streets”. Rimbaud felt that in comparison Paris looked like nothing more than a “pretty provincial town” and he loved the “interminable docks”. They eventually ran away – first to Brussels and then to London. The couple scandalised literary Paris with their wild behaviour, involving absinthe consumption. ![]() Paul Verlaine was 27 when he left his wife for the 17-year-old Arthur Rimbaud, after the young man had sent him some poems. Rimbaud and Verlaine were highly influential French poets of the 19 th century. As a teenager, I was fascinated by their story – and spellbound by their poetry. The city was the cradle of various subcultures in the 20th century – and it seems to have been the case also in the 19th century, as the lifestyle of these two former inhabitants suggests. London is renowned for attracting rebellious and eccentric characters from around the world. ![]()
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