Thursday 7 August 2014

Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion by Barbara Scott-Emmett


Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of Spirit of Lost Angels and Wolfsangel

What we thought: If you are looking for something completely different; a novel like nothing you’ve read before, Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion is for you. Revolving around the lost manuscript of poet, Arthur Rimbaud’s La Chasse Spirituelle, the quest to locate it takes the reader back to 1872, and the explosive love affair between Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. Then, when a lawyer’s clerk salvages it from a deed box, we follow the manuscript on its journey down through the decades, and learn of the sins and secrets of its different guardians.

Meanwhile, modern-day Andrea Mann is driven to France by her obsession with Rimbaud and this missing manuscript. Beside the poet’s grave at Charleville-Mézières, she meets a young man who shows her a single page, supposedly from La Chasse Spirituelle and, her curiosity piqued, Andrea embarks on a dangerous quest to locate the manuscript.

I devoured this story, eagerly turning the pages to learn more about the different keepers of the manuscript, as well as to discover whether Andrea had truly found the lost masterpiece. If you love history, intrigue, beautiful prose and great characterisation, you’ll enjoy Delirium: The Rimbaud Illusion. 

You’ll enjoy this if you like: spiritual mystery stories

Avoid if you don’t like: gay scandals

Ideal accompaniments: Several glasses of absinthe

Genre: Historical Fiction

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