
LES FLEURS DU MAL - par - CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
PRÉFACE
AU LECTEUR
SPLEEN ET IDÉAL
L'ALBATROS
ELEVATION
LES PHARES
LA MUSE VENALE
L'ENNEMI
LA VIE ANTERIEURE
A strikingly original anthology, this work gathers poems that bloom like rare, poisonous flowers, each petal scented with a mixture of melancholy and sensuality. Baudelaire turns the streets of mid‑nineteenth‑century Paris into a stage where decadence, longing, and the clash of modernity with timeless yearning play out in vivid, musical language. The verses oscillate between the seductive and the unsettling, inviting the listener to taste beauty that is simultaneously fragile and fierce.
When it first appeared, the collection sparked a scandal that led to court trials, censorship, and the removal of several poems deemed offensive to public morals. This early controversy only heightened its reputation, and the surviving verses have since become touchstones for anyone exploring the darker side of love, art, and urban life. Listening now, you hear a voice that reverberates through time, offering a brave, lyrical meditation on the paradoxes of pleasure and decay.
Language
fr
Duration
~2 hours (147K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Tonya Allen, Julie Barkley, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Release date
2004-07-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1821–1867
Best known for The Flowers of Evil, this French poet helped change the sound and subject of modern poetry by finding beauty, unease, and sharp urban detail in everyday life. He was also an influential art critic and a major translator of Edgar Allan Poe.
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