Claude Pichois (1925–2004)

The book makes no attempt to make a character out of Baudelaire--Pichois assumes that readers are already obsessed with Baudelaire, or at least sufficiently versed in the ouevre and in the biographical lore that the life needs no picturesque, novelistic or narrative recreation. Joanna Harrison and Enid Starkie, both writing for English audiences, are more traditionally biographical, which is fine, their books on Baudelaire are great, but Pichois really gets down to business, telling us show more things we may not already know. He's especially good at reading contemporary archival records for signs of Baudelaire as a citizen or as a student, for the points at which the poet's private errand through time and space glancingly touch furiously documentary French educational and governmental authorities. This archival focus means that Pichois reads very dryly, but his organizing subtext is poignantly subtle in that omitting way--as if to say, don't look for him here, these are just his accidental traces, his marks in the common rolls; to find him, turn to the poems. show less

Being a boho was difficult. As Pichois said (or something similar): before BDL you could be a rebel and be a businessman and an artist but after the middle class won, you could only starve and write.
Doggerel review time:
Lots of details.
Researched, it was.
But I still don't know
who BD wuz.

I never got a feel for BD in the book (Except for his mama fixation), just learned what he did, who he offended and the paper piles he created.

BTW, as for the women (except for mommy), we know even less show more about them--they didn,t think, they just did hung wit BD. So the book relates their presence, nothing about their life with BD. show less

These Gallimard Pleiade edition albums are just beautiful - the smell, the touch, the texture. Formidable.

Neuf.