Name: The Flowers of Evil
Price: 412.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Baudelaire, Charles ; Aggeler, William
ISBN: 9781420950366

Type

Physical Book

Author

Charles Baudelaire

Translated by

William Aggeler

Publisher

Digireads.com

Year

2015

Language

English

Pages

222

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm

Weight

0.33 kg.

ISBN13

9781420950366

Synopsis "The Flowers of Evil "

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 from subsequent publication. The notoriety caused by this scandal would ultimately work in the author's favor causing the initial publication to sell out, thus prompting the publication of another edition. The second edition was published in 1861, it included an additional thirty-five poems, with the exclusion of the six poems censored by the French government. Finally in 1868 a third edition was published posthumously. This collection added an additional fourteen poems selected by two of Baudelaire's friends yet again excluded the six censored poems. Literary scholars generally agree that, while well-meaning, the addition of these poems in the third edition disrupt the structure intended by Baudelaire and thus the 1861 edition should be considered as the definitive edition. In this volume we reproduce that 1861 edition along with the six censored poems in the original French and in an English translation by William Aggeler. Rich with symbolism, "The Flowers of Evil" is rightly considered a classic of the modernist literary movement. Its themes of decadence and eroticism seek to exhibit Baudelaire's criticism of the Parisian society of his time.

Charles Baudelaire

(Author)

View Author's Page

(Paris, 1821-1867) He is among the most influential poets of the 19th century, and probably also of the entire history of world literature. Expelled from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand despite obtaining the title of Superior Bachelor, in 1940 he enrolled in the faculty of law. He then began to frequent the Latin Quarter, where he met Gérard de Nerval, Sainte-Beuve, and Balzac, plunging uncontrollably into the world of smoke, opium, and prostitution of the Parisian bohemia. Due to his impious behavior, his family sent him to the South Seas. Upon his return, however, Baudelaire would translate the works of Edgar Allan Poe into French and carry out his most famous works: from the scandalous poetry collection The Flowers of Evil (1857) to the texts of Artificial Paradises (1960) and the posthumous Paris Spleen (1869). Harshly criticized and vilified in life for the scandalous nature of his work and behavior, Baudelaire died syphilitic and impoverished, unaware of the invaluable legacy he had bequeathed to posterity. Champion of symbolism, standard-bearer of romanticism, and precursor of decadentism, his body lies buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

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