Ocean State Libraries

Judicially condemned in 1857 as offensive to public morality, The Flowers of Evil is now regarded as the most influential volume of poetry published in the nineteenth century. Torn between intense sensuality and profound spiritual yearning, racked by debt and disease, Baudelaire transformed his own experience of Parisian life into a work of universal significance. With his unflinching examination of the dark aspects and unconventional manifestations...

Upon its original publication in 1857 Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" or "The Flowers of Evil" was embroiled in controversy. Within a month of its publication the French authorities brought an action against the author and the book's publisher claiming that the work was an insult to public decency. Eventually the French courts would acknowledge the literary merit of Baudelaire's work but ordered that six poems in particular should be banned...

"On the 200th anniversary of Baudelaire's birth comes this stunning, landmark translation of the book that launched modern poetry. A shocking, controversial work in its own time and the most influential book of poetry of the nineteenth century-"the greatest exemplar in modern poetry in any language" (T.S. Eliot)-Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil is a gritty, often perverse, exploration of the underbelly of urban modernity. Acclaimed translator...