Product Description
This volume contains all of Baudelaire's `Petits Poèmes en prose', which were written over many years and published in magazines between 1855 and his death in 1867. The French is given on the left-hand page with Francis Scarfe's translations, which reflect a lifetime's passion for and intimate understanding of Baudelaire's work, on the facing page. The appeal of `this beautiful book', says Francis Scarfe in his introduction, 'lies in its wide range of subjects, its variations of tone and mood, its great variety of presentation and above all in its psychological subtleties. It shows the poet at the height of his powers, totally uninhibited in his expression of wonder, tenderness and compassion'. To these prose poems Francis Scarfe has appended an early prose extravaganza, the short novel `La Fanfarlo' (1847).

The companion volume, `The Complete Verse', contains `Les Fleurs du mal' (1861), `Nouvelles Fleurs du mal' (1868), `Les Épaves' (1866) and all of Baudelaire's other poetry in verse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Forgotten Revolution
Let me get one thing clear - this is a masterpiece. Better or worse than les fleurs du mal? God knows... and it's not the point. Reading the other reviews i felt a potential reader may underestimate one fundamental point: this book, together with others in the production of 'Il Maestro', clears the way for the most significant aesthetical revolution ever happened in poetry: fire to 'la rima', it's time for the Poem in prose!
The (apparently)purely formal beauty must be tried, as it paves the road for the Verlaine - Rimbaud - Huysmans - Nietzsche - Gaugain diapason

A dark, true wit
Most poetry is vain and pointless, merely an abundance of rich language and an obscure purpose.Baudelaire's prose poems, by contrast, have an obvious depth to them.Baudelaire's ideas are bold enough to be placed before the reader in plain language and meaning.His view is ruthless, forcing life from its pathetic ordinariness into a celebration of the struggle of life.Trinck! is one of the most simple and greatest poems I have read.The Generous Gambler is Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray without even a hint of a moral - and all the more realistic for the lack of sentiment.Baudelaire occupies a position between Wilde and Poe, without the former's moral ideals and the latter's pointlessness.

Baudelaire's vision is a rare one - dark, humourous, vigorous and remorseless.A dark, true view of life.

The translation is excellent, with the French available on the opposing page. May it stay in print, always.

Invitation to the voyage
Any reccomendation is personal, but I've read this little book many timesand over the years it's remained a favourite. I personally prefer it to"flowers" mainly because of the dark humour. This is a goodtranslation, others that I've bought as presents for friends don't seem sopure for some reason. My favourites in this collection are: the dog and theScent Bottle,Temptations,The Generous Gambler,Which One is Real? Trink!TheLooking Glass... those are the ones that are permenantly marked in the copyI have before me...I love some of the phrasing : "having acrowd-bath," or "melodious cascades"... but why not read ityourself and email me your favourites? The last words belong the manhimself: "We should always be drunk. That is the be-all and end-all,the only choice there is. To no longer feel the horrible burden of Time,which racks your shoulders and blows you downwards to the earth, you mustmake yourself ceaselessly drunk. But drunk on what? Wine, poetry, virtue -whichever you prefer;only, get drunk." ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

a surprising glimpse
I was surprised at Baudelaire's more conservative views in this book .
I had prior considered him to be all for intoxication and inebriation , thus his famous line "Envirez-vous" that he was known for shouting at the top of his lungs when he'd be having absinthe in the Paris cafes ...
He especially writes against hashish which he felt warped and distorted peoples' minds .
His attitude was certainly influenced by the times he lived in as are some folks' attitudes about similar subjects in current times ...
A must for the Baudelaire devotee such as myself .

Worth reading from excellent publisher
A great writer known primarily for his poetry reflect upon addictive substances, their effects, and their dangers. Insightful, timely, and an interesting take, Hesperus continues to publish excellent short unknown translations. Archipelago books does even better with their longer, wider ranging translations, beautifully produced.

Essential Background
Essential background reading for anyone at all interested in Baudelaire - after all, one of his fondest sayings was 'Enivrez-vous!' - 'Get drunk!', and he often celebrated intoxicated states in remarkable style. Although he is not to be side-lined as a writer whose whole scope consists of these intoxicated states - there was a recent biography which put forward the case that his whole significance as a writer was that of a drug-addict - these states do form an integral part of, as it were 'Baudelaire-land', and it is essential to understand them in order to understand Baudelaire as a poet and thinker. Here, in an attractive hesperus volume, we have him writing directly about intoxicated states, in a fascinating insight into the workings of his mind, his time in Paris, and his attitudes towards alcohol and drugs. Well worth buying.

Gastric Memoir
Think of this short piece more as a culinary review than a work of philosophy or fiction or even memoir.Baudelaire speaks to the pros and cons of both Wine and Hashish as well as the impact of both on the body.In addition, he dabbles in satire and social insight, giving the reader a wonderful view of his life, opinions and experiences.

Classic
This is Baud writing about his experiences with Hashish and Wine. It is very poetic and very enjoyable with lots of memorable quotes.

Oh Great Hashish! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Trauma, indeed!
Adorned with a title that sounds like it was borrowed from Enya's last album, Ulrich Baer's derivative pastiche "Remnants of Song" is appallingly preachy and reductive, politically dubious in the extreme, mind-numbingly repetitive, and written in a style that lowers English critical prose to new levels of lumbering inelegance. For something worthwhile on Baudelaire, look at work by Susan Blood, Ross Chambers, Sartre . . . or anyone else, for that matter! "Remnants of Song" raises (lowers?) the bar in the writing-the-disaster department -- my nominee for the 2003 Residual Culture Award.

baudelaire is brought out of darkness into the light
when i say baudelaire is brought into the light, i mean that his work is described lucidly and criticized empathetically. the author took special pains to understand the conditions in which baudelaire wrote, and sought to bring fresh perspectives to his analyses of the works sited. i agree with another reviewer of this work who commented that his favorite section concerns the sky -- the treatment of the horizon, frames, and clouds is wonderfully clever. as a dancer and choreographer who enjoys using the imagery of poetry i found this to be one of the most helpful discussions of baudelaire's work available to me. i believe this text would be useful not only to students and lovers of poetry, but also to other artists who would like a multi-faceted reading of some very complicated and layered poems. i must confess that i did not read the sections pertaining to celan, because i am specifically focusing my personal research on baudelaire. i cannot speak for the quality of the discussions in the latter half of the book, but i can highly recommend this text to those interested in baudelaire.

Almost Traumatically Beautiful
In short, this is the best book ever written on Baudelaire and Celan. Baer articulates very complex and subtle ideas, but his prose is clear and inviting. This is for those who are interested in not only these particular poets, but also issues of "memory" and just "poetry" at large. I particulary love the third chapter "Blindness and the Sky" and the fifth chapter "Landscape and Memory." Considering that poetry is on the verge of extinction in our contemporary, it may be urgent to read this book right now. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition contains new translations by Rosemary Lloyd of an early novella by Baudelaire and all his prose poetry. The novella, "La Fanfarlo" is a mocking study of love and passion and an evocation of the art of dance. There are 50 prose poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Baudelaire at fine consistency.
What makes "La Fanfarlo"interesting is not so much for its depth but rather at the way it captures the bourgeoise flavor & appeal magnificently.Though it probes very well into human characteristics & nature vividly,it's realistic portrayal of that air of condescence & mannerisms which separate this class of society from the rest is nothing short of marvelous as it takes you to it's very world & initiates you if you are not aware.

The prose poems are the younger siblings of "The Flowers Of Evil".Though lacking in range & depth compared to the incomparable masterpiece,it nontheless elevates the reader into the emotional & intellectual mindscapes that the poet so accurately & efficiently defines.Truth & beauty go hand in hand inseparably well together,just as art & practicality give a slight glimpse into the life of a city from the point of a bitingly penetrating observer. ... Read more

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poetry, tr William H Crosby, bilingual ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Destroys Baudelaire
In the poem "Le Soleil" (The Sun), Crosby translates the words "secrete luxures," as "lubricious evils." The phrase in French literally and simply means "secret lusts." Time and again throughout the book, Crosby foists his own meaning on Baudelaire, distorting the intent of the author. In the same poem, a line which translates literally as "sniffing in every corner the chance of a rhyme," Crosby writes, "Sniffing for lucky rhymes at every thingamabob." He uses this monstrously unpoetic and incorrect vocabulary to make a rhyme with "job" in the preceding line. This translation is frequently clumsy and wrong, and if you can't read French, there is little point in reading this, because it is not Baudelaire.

Poetry.
Granted that much is always lost in any translation, much is also gained regarding these English renditions of one of the greatest poets our transient existence is likely to witness. Crosby has presented Baudelaire's verses, preserving the poet's lyricism & profound wit as close to the originals as has yet been possible. The pros/cons of translations are that each one shows a disparate shade of a poet's versatility and brilliance, just as some nuances are forlorn or perverted by the interpretations and misrepresentations of the translator. But just as Molière found his Wilbur, Baudelaire has his Crosby.

The Spirit of CB
Dr. Crosby has done the impossible.He has translated Baudelaire while somehow maintaining the sound, the music of the great man. [...]For those who wish to know the soul and sound of CB this is your book!!!

Stunning
I have read the purist's dismissal of this work.It is, they complain, not a literal translation.There are many literal, word-for-word translations of Baudelaire.But there is only one translation in which the author attempts and most often succeeds in capturing the sound and spirit of the poet, and this is this one.Poetry is not just words.What makes poetry different from prose is the use of word-sound to carry meaning.Crosby captures the music of Baudelair's verse.It is the only translation to do so. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

highly unique
gorgeously dark words of magic and vision. Unlike anything else.

Onward Motion
Charles Baudelaire, in his Little Poems in Prose--at least in this translation, I may say--, speaks as if he were thrown into a wind of excitement and enthusiasm in one whirl of experience, and then, no sooner does he do so, that he is ready to move on, and experience something else.

I find thst this book is published no where else at this present time, than through the Teitan Press; Crowley has some poems in translation of Baudelaire in his Collected Works, but this present edition (Little Poems in Prose) is all in prose.Thus, it is contained no where else, as yet.

Exquisite Miniatures
Baudelaire's Petite Poèmes en prose was published posthumously in 1869 and was later, as intended by the author, entitled Le Spleen de Paris.Baudelaire did not live long enough to bring these poems together in a single volume, but it is clear from his correspondence that the work he envisaged was both a continuation of, and a radical departure from, Les Fleurs du mal.

Some of the texts may be regarded as authentic poems in prose, while others are closer to exquisite miniature prose narratives.The setting is primarily urban, with the focus on crowds and the suffering lives they contain:a broken-down street acrobat (Le Vieux Satimbanque), a hapless street trader (Le Mauvais Vitrier), the poor staring at the wealthy in their opulent cafés (Le Vieux des pauvres), the deranged (Mademoisele Bistouri) and the derelict (Assommons les pauvres!), and, in the final text (Les Bon Chiens), the pariah dogs that scurry and scavenge through the streets of Brussels.

Not only is the subject matter of the prose poems essentially urban, but the form itself, "musical but without rhythm and rhyme, both supple and staccato," is said to derive from "frequent contact with enormous cities, from the junction of their innumerable connections."

In its deliberate fragmentation and its merging of the lyrical with the sardonic, Le Spleen de Paris may be regarded as one of the earliest and most successful examples of a specifically urban writing, the textual equivalent of the city scenes of the Impressionists, embodying in its poetics of sudden and disorienting encounter that ambiguous "heroism of modern life" that Baudelaire celebrated in his art criticism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

GREAT TRANSLATION!!!
THIS IS A FANTASTIC TRANSLATION! AND MY FAVORITE EDITION OF BAUDELAIRE BESIDES THE COMPLETE FLOWERS OF EVIL ALSO FROM NEW DIRECTIONS PUBLISHING.

O, where have you gone, Baudelaire?
Flowers of Evil is teeming with imagery that is, at times, lofty, and others, bitter. My favorite edition is the 1955 New Directions Paperbook edition. He was truly a poet who lived and thought rather than the masses who merely muse on living. Read his poetry and step lightly through the flowers.

I know a better translation.
Rather than this edition, I suggest Crosby's translation (Boa Publication).In it he has captured not only the meaning of B's poems, but maintained the music (rhythm and rhyme) of the poetry as well ... Read more

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Charles Baudelaire, possibly the most influential author of nineteenth-century France, created a poetics of modernity and a thematics of the city; he transcended genre by moving between poetry and prose. He is also the most accessible of modern French poets to an American readership. These essays examine Baudelaire's poetics and the complex relationship between the poet and his twentieth-century literary heirs, including RenÈ Char, Yves Bonnefoy, and Michel Deguy. The contributors, who include Deguy and Bonnefoy, are all distinguished writers or critics noted for their own poetry or for their scholarship on Baudelaire and in French studies. Their essays go to the heart of what makes Baudelaire so important: his modernity and his influence from the very beginning on other poets, including those outside of France. The essays are written in English, with citations from Baudelaire and other sources in both French and English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

mixed bag, not for the general reader
Baudelaire (1821-1867), probably more than any modern poet, has fascinated generation after generation of poets, composers, and critics.The former two have looked to "Les Fleurs du Mal" as a model and a source of inspiration -- the poetry is extraordinarily good, in places even profound, and overall highly musical -- while the latter, well, that's where the phrase "cottage industry" comes in.This collection, while it contains some interesting pieces, mostly shows how easy it is to get mired in navel gazing and useless speculation and go over the deep end.

It may not be a logical fallacy to try to figure out the message by looking inside the head of the messenger, but it's close enough to make one wish people would stay away from this approach.Psychobabble is what we get from Miner's article -- but then, Sartre's book on Baudelaire started it all and I wish he hadn't.Baudelaire was a genius of the first caliber; he was born that way; putting him on the couch will only tell you something about ... the shrink and the couch.

Franke (and others writing about symbols) could have used an elementary course in logic so he would not write stuff like "symbolization begins when one thing is used to stand for something else" and later, self-contradictorily, that "Baudelaire identifies everything with everything else."Of course, Baudelaire does no such thing and it's language that (in a way that is technically quite complicated and addressed in model theory) can be said first and foremost to be a symbol -- which itself is ambiguous between symbol-type and symbol-token (look it up).

Brix insists that Baudelaire is not a Platonist but presents evidence in rather selective fashion, leaving out many, many passages that suggest the contrary.Nor is it clear that he (Brix) has a clear understanding of Platonism in the philosophically correct sense of the term as opposed to the usual vague descriptions.This is too bad because the assumption of Platonism shows what a deep book "Les Fleurs du Mal" really is.This should come as good news, because connecting anything to a large philosophical theory is bound to shed light on what's going on.

You know you're down in the weeds where experts are just whispering to each other when an article comments on the views of a major critic who spilled a lot of (in this case Marxist) ink on Baudelaire.That's what you get in Newmark's piece on the (long dead) German critic Walter Benjamin.Have a look if you don't believe me.

I'm a big fan of the Australian scholar Rosemary Lloyd and her wonderful book on Baudelaire; her article is the best of the bunch by far in this collection.She writes clearly (no blue prose), her translations are excellent, and makes many insightful points, jus as she did in her book.

So, get this book if you're working on a Ph.D. in comparative literature or Baudelaire or something like that.Otherwise, skip it.

P.S. Anyone looking for a clear and incisive review of "Les Fleurs du Mal" should check out Swinburne's -- yes, Algernon Charles, that dude, written (believe it or not) in a Paris turkish bath in 1862.Swinburne writes "... nothing is wrongly given, nothing capable of being re-written or improved on its own ground" -- high praise indeed from another poet of stature. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology of translations of Charles Baudelaire's poems, brings together work which reveals the different facets of Baudelaire's personality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Baudelaire in English (Poets in Translation, Penguin)
Baudelaire in English, still romantic and a dream of inspirations for all whose hearts are fain to the virtues of Meaning chiefly when it can be felt in real words which flowed out a romantic heart and into posterity. In life the poor fellow was always plagued by just ordinary but rather too often "bad luck" however he could write his heart out like no other... And that is why I have always loved Baudelaire... I recommend his works in any language, in any age or time! A bit of Baudelaire can always balance our ways of seeing our own world and allow us the wings of his inspiration.

The best way to meet Baudelaire
This is the book that introduced me to Penguin's wonderful Poets in Translation series.I've been hooked ever since.With brief introductions placing the translator in proper context, the anthology moves through all Baudelaire's major poems, dwelling with multiple translations and comparisons to the original on a few key favorites.

If you can't read French (and believe me I can't), this is the next best thing.By seeing Baudie from multiple perspectives, translated over several generations, you really get a better sense of his poems than any one translator could give you.On top of that, the editors do a great job of giving minimal-but-effective background material.

Should you choose to explore further, you are armed with knowledge of how each translator approached his or her task.This is invaluable.It lead me, for example, to F.P. Sturm's translations, which I never otherwise would have known about.Excellent! 5/5 stars.

translation in cultural perspective
Prof Carol Clark and Prof Robert Sykes in their 40-page introduction put the English translation of Baudelaire in a cultural perspective.Excellent example of translation studies. ... Read more

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The Violence of Modernity turns to Charles Baudelaire, one of the most canonical figures of literary modernism, in order to reclaim an aesthetic legacy for ethical inquiry and historical critique. Works of modern literature are commonly theorized as symptomatic responses to the trauma of history. In a climate that tends to privilege crisis over critique, Debarati Sanyal argues that it is urgent to rethink literary experience in terms that recall its contestatory potential. Examining Baudelaire's poems afresh, she shifts the focus of critical attention toward an account of modernism as an active engagement with violence, specifically the violence of history in nineteenth-century France.

Sanyal analyzes a literary current that uses the traditional hallmarks of modernism -- irony, intertextuality, self-reflexivity, and formalism -- to challenge the historical violence of modernity. Baudelaire and the committed ironists writing in his wake teach us how to read and resist the violence of history, and thereby to challenge the melancholy tenor of our contemporary "wound culture." In a series of provocative readings, Sanyal presents Baudelaire's poetry as an aesthetic form that contests historical violence through rhetorical strategies of complicity, counterviolence, and critique. The book develops a new account of Baudelaire's significance as a modernist by dislodging him both from his traditional status as a practitioner of "art for art's sake" and from his more recent incarnation as the poet of trauma.

Following her extended analysis of Baudelaire's poetry, Sanyal in later chapters considers a number of authors influenced by his strategies -- including Rachilde, Virginie Despentes, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre -- to examine the relevance of their interventions for our current climate of trauma and terror. The result is a study that underscores how Baudelaire's legacy continues to energize literary engagements with the violence of modernity.

Customer Reviews (1)

Impressive
This is some of the best work on Baudelaire and the political force of irony that I've read in a long time.A must for any serious reader of nineteenth-century French letters.The chapters on 20th-century writers working within similar frameworks make great connections. This book made me rethink Baudelaire and irony more generally; it also offered an inspired critique of theoretical discourses that would position us all equally as "victims" of historical trauma. I especially liked the chapters on women writers. Nuanced close readings and sophisticated thinking. ... Read more

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Here, for the first time, the work of three of Frances greatest poets has been published in a single volume: the sensual and passionate glow of Charles Baudelaire, the desperate intensity and challenge of Arthur Rimbaud, and the absinthe-tinted symbolist songs of Paul Verlaine.

To bring the essence of these three giants of modern poetry to the American public, Joseph M. Bernstein, a noted interpreter and translator of French literature, has selected the most representative of their writings and presented them along with a biographical and critical introduction.

"Not to know these three poets", he points out, "is to deprive oneself of a pleasure as rare as it is indispensable to any real understanding of the aims and direction of modern literature.

The volume includes Arthur Symons' unabridged translation of Flowers of Evil and the Prose Poems of Baudelaire; Louise Varese's translation of Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and Prose Poems from "Illuminations"; J. Norman Cameron's translation of the verse from the Illuminations; and a representative selection from Verlaine's verse translated by Gertrude Hall and Arthur Symons. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Rather spotty
I am disappointed to find that the selections in this book are rather spotty.A number of major poems are left out, while some less good ones are included.Also,I dislike the concept of trying to duplicate the French meter in English.The translator has to twist and torture the author's text to the point that the English "equivalent" is often far removed from the original French.In my view it is best to avoid trying to convey rhyme and rhythm and sounds in English and stick to the the words, the concepts and connotations of the French text. I am very familiar with a number of the poems listed, but on first reading these English versions I just couldn't recognize the original at all.

Symbolist Poets Highlighted in Tight Volume
"Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems" carries with it a strong selection of each poet's better known poems. Collecting these three, specifically, is in tune with their own sense of language and image.

The translations work splendidly for all three poets, as executed by several different translators. As such, the pieces chosen are encumbered or glorified by their own merit, and not of the hurdles and interpretative biases of language.

I first learned of Arthur Rimbaud, ironically, from my religion teacher at a Catholic high school. As the first French poet I was introduced I felt, then, obligated to like his work. However, now, in seeing him compared to the much greater Baudelaire, Rimbaud comes across self-indulgent and meaningless. I gain no pleasure from reading his work, and consider, of these three, him to be far overrated.

Paul Verlaine, for me, is somewhere in-between. His romance with Rimbaud (scandalous then, as he dumped his infant daughter and young wife for Rimbaud) luckily did not reduce his poetry to wandering colors and images. Occasionally, he is even cliche:

Oh, heavy, heavy my despair
Because, because of One so fair.
(from Verlaine's "Oh, Heavy, Heavy")

And occasionally brilliant:

Hills and fences hurry by
Blent in greenish-rosy flight,
And the yellow carriage-light
Blurs all to the half-shut eye
(from Verlaine's "Brussels")

Baudelaire's prose poem selections are too many here. They do not meet up in quality with his more tightly articulated poetry. The section, "Flowers of Evil," though, is a masterful, though bitter, book within a book.

Throughout "Flowers," Baudelaire defies God, but never denies his existence or power, as seen here in"St Peter's Denial,"

What has God done with all this flood of sacrifices?
Which rises to his Seraphim divine?
As a tyrant intoxicated with his wine
His fearful sleep is haunted by his vices.

I fully recommend "Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems." While I cannot so I am an exuberant fan of any of them, their influence on poets I completely embrace I acknowledge, and am pleased to have become better aware of them.

Anthony Trendl
HungarianBookstore.com

poets of evil
I think I have a better instinctual understand of these "decadents" who were the clear marking of the break between the old aesthetic rationality and the surrealism, symbolism, etc. thatfollowed--those who actually blend the periods, smudge and blur the twoworldviews, like Poe and Blake and, here, Baudelaire do. I likeBaudelaire's phantasmagoria, his exoticism put in service of delivering aconcrete insight. And I especially like it when the poetic histrionics of"Flowers of Evil" give way to the fascinating prose poems--like"The Confiteor of the Artist" or the marvellouswar-against-poetry volley "The Courteous Marksman." Other fineones (reminding me also of Lovecraft)--"The Evil Glazier,""At One O'Clock in the Morning," "Solitude." There'smisanthropy, insight and occult broodishness here of the most useful sort.

Rimbaud and Verlaine didn't grip me as strongly--I appreciate that theystretched artistic boundaries, but what they have done intrinsically Idon't find as rich. Rimbaud's religious ravings and visions I findintelligent but obscurant (like Wallace Stevens)--he's doing someconstructive deconstruction, but it's hardly readable (though I do like themore coherent symbolism of the famed "Drunken Boat"). AndVerlaine, while he has the occasional dead-on whimsical insight, is a bittoo florid in verbiage, classical in form, and even conventional for me.With these latter two poets, I think my concern with translated poetry alsomust come in at full force--this sort of wordplay and deliberatesuggestiveness must be highly dependent on the nuance of the originalwords, and must therefore lose something considerable in English.--J.Ruch ... Read more

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Poet, aesthete and hedonist, Baudelaire was also one of the most groundbreaking art critics of his time. Here he explores beauty, fashion, dandyism, the purpose of art and the role of the artist, and describes the painter who, for him, expresses most fully the drama of modern life. "Great Ideas": throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. ... Read more

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Paris Spleen, a diverse collection of fifty prose poems, is provided here in a clear, engaging, and accurate translation that conveys the lyricism and nuance of the original French text. Also included is a translation of Baudelaire's early novella, La Fanfarlo, which, alongside Paris Spleen, sheds light on the development of Baudelaire's work over time.

Raymond N. MacKenzie's introductory essay discusses Baudelaire's life and the literary climate in which he lived and worked. Focusing on the theory of the prose poem, MacKenzie suggests that Baudelaire turned to this form for both aesthetic and ethical reasons, and because the form allowed him to explore more fully the complexities of the modern, urban, human condition. By turns comic, somber, satiric, and self-questioning, Paris Spleen is one of the nineteenth century's richest masterpieces. ... Read more