Charles Baudelaire

Charles-Pierre Baudelaire

Born: Paris, April 9th 1821 Died: Paris, August 31st 1867

One of the most famous decadent poets, B. has been a guide for many depressed people. The way B. faces his depression is by taking drugs, such as opium, hashish and alcoholics. He is also famous for the first translation of Edgar Allan Poe in French. When his "Les Fleurs du mal" (The Flowers of Evil) appeared in 1857, the author, publisher, and printer were prosecuted and found guilty of obscenity and blasphemy. "You - hypocrite Reader - my double - my brother!". In the prefatory poem of "Les fleurs du mal" Baudelaire makes his reader as guilty of sins and lies as the poet:

If poison, arson, sex, narcotics, knives have not yet ruined us and stitched their quick, loud patterns on the canvas of our lives, it is because our souls are still too sick.

Six poems were deleted from the work. Before 1949, when his work has been revaluated, he was considered a drug-addict and a very vulgar author because of his poems, too futurists for the XIX century. Many of his works have been published after his death.

His writings:

SALON DE 1845, 1845 SALON DE 1846, 1846 LA FANFARIO, 1847 LES FLEURS DU MAL, 1857 LES PARADIS ARTIFICAELS, 1860 RÉFLEXIONS SUR QUELQUES-UNS DE MES CONTEMPORAINS, 1861 LE PEINTURE DE LA VIE MODERNE, 1963 CURIOSITÉS ESTHÉTIQUES, 1868 L'ART ROMANTIQUE, 1868 LE SPLEEN DE PARIS/PETITS POÉMES EN PROSE, 1869 OEUVRES POSTHUMES ET CORRESPONDANCE GÉNÉRALE, 1887-1907 FUSÉES, 1897 MON COEUR MIS À NU, 1897 OEUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1922-53 (19 vols.) Mirror of Art, 1955 The Essence of Laughter, 1956 CURIOSITÉS ESTHÉTIQUES, 1962 The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, 1964 Baudelaire as a Literary Critic, 1964 Arts in Paris 1845-1862, 1965 Selected Writings on Art and Artist, 1972 Selected Letters of Charles Baudelaire, 1986 CRITIQUE D'ART; CRITIQUE MUSICALE, 1992