Other editions of book THE FLOWERS OF EVIL Easton Press

The Flowers of Evil) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 (see 1857 in poetry), it was important in the symbolist and modernistmovements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821 – 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, a book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of beauty in the rapidly industrializing Paris during the mid-19th century. Baudelaire's highly original style of prose-poetry influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé, among many others. He is credited with coining the term "modernity" (modernité) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience.

The Flowers of Evil (first published in 1857), originally condemned as obscene, is recognized as a masterpiece, especially remarkable for the brilliant phrasing, rhythm, and expressiveness of its lyrics. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century. His work has been a major influence on Western poetry and modern poetry in general as, thematically, he was one of the first poets whose subject was often urban life and its dark side, with all of its evils and the degradation of its temptations. His poems, classical in form, introduced Symbolism, he is also known as a writer of the Decadent group. Baudelaire was moody and rebellious, imbued with an intense religious mysticism, and his work reflects an unremitting inner despair. His main theme is the inseparable nature of beauty and corruption.

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9 1821 in Paris to an amateur artist mother and professional father. His father died when Charles was 6 but his mother remarried shortly after to Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick who later became a prominent ambassador. Consequently Charles received a good education and was encouraged to enter the legal profession by both parents but instead wanted to pursue the life of the writer and had already developed an appetite, whilst studying law, for prostitutes and alcohol that inevitably led to debt and his parents disapproval. Baudelaire's literary published work began with well received art reviews and essays. He was a pioneering translator which included the works of Edgar Allan Poe but his most remarkable, famous and memorable works was his poetry and in particular his volume entitled The Flowers of Evil ('Les Fleurs du Mal'). The principal subject of these innovative styled poems about the changing nature of beauty in the modern industrialised Paris were sex and death and included lost innocence, lesbianism, alcohol, depression and urban corruption. This work created a huge controversy that led to the successful prosecution of both Baudelaire and his publisher for creating an offense against public morals. However, the book did find an appreciative audience including Victor Hugo who wrote to Baudelaire: 'Your fleurs du mal shine and dazzle like stars... I applaud your vigorous spirit with all my might'. The poems were hugely influential and in 1949 the judgement was officially reversed and Baudelaire recognised for his incredible talent. He died within a year of suffering a severe stroke on 31st August, 1867 and was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Several artists like Théodore de Banville, would say that Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil is “immense, prodigious, unexpected, mingled with admiration and with some indefinable anxious fear”. Gustave Flaubert, also got amazed in the same style with Madame Bovary and praised, “You have found a way to rejuvenate Romanticism.... You are as unyielding as marble, and as penetrating as an English mist.” The poem emphasizes sex and death, which were defined as outrageous. He also pointed out on lesbianism, heavenly and irreverent love, conversion, dejection, the shortcomings of his place, guilt, torture, and liquor. The poet was noteworthy in for his poems for sense of sight and for the sense of inhaling and smelling of scents, which helped to reminisce past experiences. The Flowers of Evil was critiqued as noxious and objectionable during his life as an artist while several critiques connote some of the poems as “masterpieces of passion, art and poetry”. J. Habas in Le Figaro, steered into the controversy, “Everything in it which is not hideous is incomprehensible, everything one understands is putrid.” Baudelaire defended himself through a letter to his mother and countered that every man has every right to express his deepest thoughts and feelings in any form of art. Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a poet originally from France who was also ultimately regarded as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe.

Professor Jackson Mathews felt that no one translator could encompass Baudelaire's full range. Over a period of seven years he and his wife collected and compared all available English translations of the poems. The culmination of their efforts brings the best work of 30 translators (including Aldous Huxley and Edna St. Vincent Millay) represented in the 163 poems presented in this volume. The complete French texts, as established for the Pleiade edition, are provided making this a bilingual edition. Several of the poems were never before published and the first English translations of Baudelaire's three drafts for a Preface are also included.