Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born in Charleville, in the Ardennes, October 20, 1854. His father, Captain of Infantry Frédéric Rimbaud and his mother, Vitalie Cuif, descended from a farming family of Ardennes, married in 1853. Arthur had an elder brother, Frédéric. His sisters Vitalie and Isabelle are born in 1858 and in 1860.
Then their father definitively joined his regiment in Grenoble, leaving his wife and children. He quickly retired to Dijon. Deeply hurt, his wife kept silence on him. The children were very strictly educated, because their mother feared that they would follow the bad example of their father and uncles Cuif.

The two boys first entered the Rossat Institute. Then in 1865, the Charleville College, where Arthur met Ernest Delahaye, who remained his most faithful friend.

As a brilliant student and a model pupil, he accumulated the prizes, especially in rhetoric. At thirteen years old, he secretly sent a tribute to the Imperial Prince who had just made his first communion. He wrote his first lines in Latin : in 1869, he won the first prize in an academic contest for Ver Erat, the Angel and the Child, and Jugutha. One of his professors of third year, Mr. Pérette said about him : "Intelligent, as much as you want, but he has eyes and a smile which I do not like. He will end badly : in any case, nothing banal will germinate in this head : it will be the genius of good or evil !"

In January 1870, the Review published his first lines : the Orphans' New Year gifts. Then a new teacher of rhetoric, Georges Izambard, himself poet, arrived from Paris. He became fond of Arthur and made him happy by letting him use his personal library. Mrs Rimbaud thought that some of the books could corrupt her son.
On May 24, 1870, hoping to be published in the contemporary Parnassus, Arthur sent to Theodore Banville : Sensation, Ophelia and Credo in Unam (first Sun and Flesh version), then the following year What we say to the poet about flowers. He is not discouraged by these failures.

In 1871, France waged war against Prussia. Everything is disorganised. Izambard left for Douai letting the access of his library to Arthur. Arthur walked round and round and became really bored : "My city is exceptionally idiot among all the small provincial towns" he wrote to him.

On August 29, for the first time, he ran away to Paris, via Charleroi. His ticket not being valid for the whole journey, he was imprisoned in Mazas. On the intervention of Izambard, he is released and goes to Douai to spend fifteen days at the Gindre Ladies' house, Izambard's old aunts.
His return home is not very warm. Also, on October 7, Arthur ran away again for Belgium (Charleroi), then Brussels, before returning to the Gindre Ladies' house in Douai. There, he wrote up his poems and sent them to Paul Demeny, a young poet introduced to him by Yzambard.
On November 1, Rimbaud's mother asked the Police to bring him back home. The college buildings were requisitioned as a hospital and the school was closed. So Arthur spent a lot of time in Charleville's library.
On February 25, 1871, he ran away one more time to Paris, by train. Completely broke, he wandered for fifteen days and finally went back on foot to Charleville on March 10th.

When the Commune broke out in Paris on March 18th, he shares the insurrectionists' feelings. He expresses them in Parisian Song of War, Jeanne-Marie's Hands, Paris is Repeopled. He was completely revolted, became anarchist, violent, started to drink and had fun to behave scandalously. It is the "disorder of all the senses". He explained his behaviour and feelings to his friends Izambard and Demeny, in two letters known as "of the Visionary". He asked Demeny to burn the poems that he previously sent to him, judging them outmoded. Fortunately, his friend did not do it.

At the beginning of September, from Ostend they went to London. They saw the sea for the first time. On their arrival, they contacted the exile Communards, like Eugène Vermersh and Félix Regamey. They were helped to settle near Soho, 34 Howland Street. Being enthusiastic about the town, Rimbaud composed part of the Illuminations and Verlaine wrote the "Romances sans Paroles".

But Verlaine is harassed by the papers about the legal separation asked for by his wife. She had his fits of violence due to alcohol and had his weird behaviour in Brussels against him. He lost heart and lamented, overwhelmed with remorse. Following his mother's advises, Rimbaud went back to Charleville in December.
He stayed three weeks there. Depressed and sick, Verlaine called for help desperately. Arthur and Verlaine's mother ran to his bedside.

Life went on as before with walks, reading and studies. On April 4, they left London. Verlaine went to Namur, always obsessed by the idea of being reconciled with his wife. But she refused all contact. All alone, Arthur returned to Roche on April 11 and started to write a Pagan Book, or Negro Book, which became a Season in Hell.

At the beginning of July, he agreed to go back to London with Verlaine, via Liège and Anvers. They settled in 8 Great College street, Camden Town. They improved their English and gave French lessons. Their strange love affair begun to be known in the Communard circle of London which expelled them. It is mentioned in the reports of the police informers, who infiltrated the group. Verlaine felt that his reputation was lost and began to see that he would lose his case against his wife if the rumour was heard in Paris. He started to drink again. Arthur was more and more unbearable. They began to fight more and more often with fists but also with knifes. Following a violent argument, Verlaine left Rimbaud and took refuge in Brussels, still hoping that her wife would come and that they would be reconciled. Very emotional, he spoke about suicide in his letters. His mother joined him and he sent a telegram for Arthur to come too.

July 10, understanding that Rimbaud wanted absolutely to go back to Paris, Verlaine fired two shots of revolver at him. One of them hits him in the wrist. After being treated in the Saint-Jean hospital, Arthur made his way towards the station. Verlaine threatening him again, he takes fright and calls a policeman. Verlaine is taken to the police station and the day after, he is transferred to the prison of Petites-Carmes. He is subjected to a medico-legal examination which concluded that he had homosexual habits. On August 8, he is sentenced to two years of imprisonment by Brussels magistrates' court for assaults and grievous bodily harm, and got a 200F fine, in spite of Rimbaud's declaration in his favour. Arthur had been hospitalised so the bullet can be removed from his wrist.

Behind Rimbaud, it is written : "French epilogue
Portrait of the French Arthur Rimbaud, wounded after drink by his close friend the French poet Paul Verlaine
Painted from life by Jef Bosman at Mrs Pincemaille's home, tobacconist's shopkeeper, Rue Des Bouchers in Brussels".

July 20, after having signed an act of renunciation of his complaint the day before, Arthur, desperate, went back to Roche and locked up in the loft finished writing a Season in Hell.
In August, he brought the manuscript to a printer in Brussels. October 22nd, being unable to pay for the printer, he took some copies, gave them to rare friends, and abandoned the edition of his book. He left one of them for Verlaine in prison. But he only found hostility : everybody reproached him about the decline of Paul.

In March 1874, he went back to London with Germain Nouveau, another poet who helped him to write up the Illuminations. They settle in 178 Stamford Street and give French lessons. Nouveau went back to Paris in June, probably to escape Arthur's bad reputation which could damage his promising young career. Depressed, Arthur wrote a letter to his family and in July, he received a visit from his mother and sister Vitalie. On July 31, he left London for a job in Scarborough. He went back to Charleville at the end of December.
Until 1879, he wandered, most of time on foot, in all Europe.