The Man with Two Lives

It is said that the Chinese have a curse: “May you live in interesting times.” The lives of those who lived through tumultuous events, or whose lives were exciting in themselves may make for good reading, but were perhaps not so much fun to live through. This is the story of a man with two lives. He was a precocious poet, a gay lover at a time when this was forbidden, a reckless, wild and shocking young man. He was also a merchant, a business pioneer in far-off lands, who died aged 37 in the faith of his fathers, and was buried in the town from which he came. This is the story of the short, but definitely interesting life of Arthur Rimbaud.