The Flowers of Evil

This wasn't the pit of debauchery I'd half expected from its reputation. Which isn't to say there aren't some shocking images ("The Carcass" comes to mind), but times have moved on.

It's an interesting reflection that poems explicitly about necrophilia weren't banned upon publication, but those about, or even hinting at, lesbianism were. A man's pleasures were seemingly more acceptable, however depraved.

It's not all about sex though (ok, a lot of it is!), and Baudelaire also tackles art and artists, love and romance, depression and, well, more depression, the inequalities of society, and the lives of the poor and wretched inhabitants of Paris's deprived urban landscapes away from the bright lights of the cafes and salons of the show more bourgeoisie.

A slightly unsettling 5/5 🌟 show less

Baudelaire was the heir of the darkest and melancholiest form of Romanticism, having dedicated here his poetry to Théophile Gautier, the red gilet of 'Hernani', while not forgetting Victor Hugo, recipient of a few poems and who had described 'The Flowers of Evil' as being a 'new shiver'. And what a shiver indeed! Here's a shiver announcing, also, in many ways, Symbolism yet to come... This book is a masterpiece. The matrix of modern poetry. For there is a before and an after Baudelaire; he who was an heir, but also a precursor; the Father, the Son, and the Unholy Spirit of Art and in front of whom one can only kneel -born too late, too early, and yet at the right time. What else to say?

His goal was 'to extract beauty out of Evil'. Man show more isn't naturally good. He has shadows, lurking within. Mysteries. An abyss, terrifying yet lodged right at the core of his consciousness. This abyss, nightmarish pit that most deny, Baudelaire reflects it here. He grabs the readers by the hair, and pull, pull mercilessly and despite protests so as to force us to look into it, even, throw us in. Fall. Plunge. Sink. And, if you can't cope, perish. His is a putrid poetry reeking of Hell.

We know, because too new, too daring, to audacious, only one publisher will have the b@lls to publish it, and the rest is history. Lauded by some, damned by others, the battle will end up in front of the tribunals where, accused of indecency, the book will be amputated of 6 of its poems (out of 100 or so). Why these poems in particular, I still fail to see the point. Suffice to say that, in France, the judgement and court decision will be reviewed only in... 1946! It took time to get Baudelaire.

But then, what else? Here's a jewel of a book. Ambitious. Near-perfect. The putrid guts of French poetry, and the insane grandparent of Modernism. Again: a masterpiece. show less

Hace un tiempo tuve una discusión de borrachos donde quien sea el que tenía en frente dijo "No me gusta. No sé. Baudelaire está lleno de lugares comunes".

"No, gil de caucho. Los lugares comunes existen porque hace un siglo y medio que millones de personas que no conocen la palabra "originalidad" tratan de escribir como Baudellaire."

"Las Flores del Mal", según algunos la obra maestra de Charles Baudellaire, es una de las primeras (o al menos más notorias) quejas contra la modernidad que aparecieron. Mientras se inventaba la máquina de escribir (apenas un par de años después del fusil Remington, porque primero las balas, las letras que esperen su turno), se descubrían nuevas galaxias, se reducían las jornadas laborales show more británicas a 10 horas y Sudamérica acomodaba sus fronteras a codazos, Charles recorría las calles con el pelo verde, resaltando, entre otras cosas, el erotismo lésbico, la belleza de la melancolía y la presencia de viejitas, lisiados, prostitutas y alcohólicos.

"Este era medio romántico, ¿no?", me preguntó un amigo de mi viejo el otro día mientras señalaba el libro en mi mesita de luz.

Y... sí. Te parece. show less

From Paris to the stars to the depths of ones splenetic imagination the reader feels the power of this verse compilation. Whether there has ever been anything like it does not matter as even in our later age the poems strike deep and hard inside our humanity. Love and death and the dregs of desire that cannot be imagined and yet appears here in the verse of the great one - Baudelaire.

I don't speak French and can't read more than a few words here and there, but as I was reading Howard's non-rhyming translation, I felt for the first time I was seeing into the mind of Baudelaire. Surely it couldn't have been the translator's mind. These poems are full of disturbing images and very dark observations, and they aren't completely clear on a first or even second reading, but the experience of reading them is still riveting, and unlike some poetry, it makes you want to re-read them. And read criticism to better understand them. Perhaps like Confucius's Analects, you need to read more than one translation to really gain a better understanding. I may try that. In the meantime, I highly recommend this edition. I should point show more out, for those who care, that while it has both the French and English versions of the poems, these are in separate sections of the book--not on facing pages. So if you know some French and want to compare side-by-side, you're out of luck and may want to purchase another edition. show less

Baudelaire's Les Fleurs is a piqued sensorium; it's the silken petal gliding over flesh, guided by fingers that captivate. It's sensual and Baudelaire's emphasis on modern alienation serves to make it even more so. Whether because the theme of modern alienation speaks so loudly to our day to day or because it's laid so bare by Baudelaire's personal context, I'm not sure. I felt pulled by both during the read and this edition has become a favorite as a result.

Baudelaire speaks to the senses the way Whitman speaks to word lovers, the way a spoken word piece sinks into its audience. His verses have a lasting presence.

I would definitely recommend this edition to first time readers of Baudelaire. I enjoyed reading in French but it was show more interesting to have the English versions as well to see if there was a trade-off in meaning or overall feel. show less