Night Thoughts

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

 Has anyone ever read Young's Night Thoughts, which Camille supposedly took with him into prison? I just bought myself a mid 19th c. edition on Ebay for $10 and my feelings about reading it are difficult to put into words.

Do you know if he possessed a copy in the original English, or if it was a French edition?

(I know I already posted about my man tonight--don't you know it's a Camille attack rrrrrarrggggh!)

Comments

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Well, Marat was a Swiss whose father was a teacher of languages, then proceeded to live in England for quite a few years even before the Revolution, so no matter how bright Camille is, the comparison isn't really apt. I think it's more likely that Camille had it in French, simply because there's a difference between having some knowledge of a language and reading a book in one! My parents have been in the US for over twenty years and spoke English almost fluently even before that - and they still prefer to read English book translations rather than the book itself.

(Besides, I would imagine you'd take something comforting to prison - not something you'd have to struggle with, or to curse about the fact that you don't have a dictionary for a difficult word...^^)

[amie-de-rimbaud.livejournal.com]

Touché. What you said makes perfect sense. I'm in the middle of a 700 pp. Camille biography, and I've already been through the detailed sections on his education--no mention of English studies. *Palm face* I think that maybe I drew the conclusion because I was secretly pleased at the idea for some reason.