Charles Baudelaire Wrote Flowers of Evil
Romantic French Poet Also Translated Poe and Wrote Art Criticism
Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen are considered by many to be the basis for modern European poetry. Known as the first poet to write about a modern urban center-Paris-he wrote about such themes as alienation and sexual obsession.
Baudelaire was born in 1821 to a 66-year-old ex-priest and a 26-year-old woman. Baudelaire's father died in 1827. His mother remarried and her new husband eventually became a senator. Baudelaire had difficulties with his step-father and had an unusually close relationship with his mother.
Flowers of Evil: Baudelaire's Poetry Collection is a Landmark of Modern Poetry
In 1857, when Baudelaire was 36, he published his book-length collection of poems entitled Flowers of Evil (Fleurs du Mal in French) and the author, in addition to his printer and publisher, were prosecuted for profanity. The frank discussion of sex in the poems, as well as themes such as vampirism, proved shocking to the authorities.
Baudelaire published a new edition of Flowers of Evil in 1861 and was working on a third edition when he died in 1867. The posthumous edition was published in 1868.
Poets and critics including Victor Hugo, Gustav Flaubert and T.S. Eliot praised Flowers of Evil for its artistic achievement.
Art Criticism and Prose Poetry
Baudelaire was also a professional art critic noted for his support of romantic painters including Édouard Manet and Eugène Delacroix. He included many important painters of the era as his acquaintances and friends.
Always experimenting with words, Baudelaire helped develop a form that came to be called prose poetry and these writings were collected under the title Paris Spleen.
Baudelaire Translated Works by Edgar Allan Poe
Influenced by the writings of American author Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire translated many of Poe's stories and his only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
Baudelaire was considered a sympathetic translator of Poe. Baudelaire had many of the same literary predilections as Poe, including an interest in the macabre, and, like Poe, suffered with poverty and depression his whole life.
Later Life and Death
Baudelaire suffered from poor health and poverty in the last decade of his life. A series of strokes led to his death at the age of 46 in 1867. He died after two years in a semi-paralyzed state nearly bankrupt.
Posthumous publication of his works allowed Baudelaire's mother to pay off many of his debts. In subsequent decades his works grew in literary stature and today they hold a high place in the French literary canon.
Sources
The Flowers of Evil, New Directions, 1989
Paris Spleen, New Directions, 1970
Charles Baudelaire
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