The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation
The celebrated, National Book Award-winning, translation of Baudelaire’s masterpiece. “It is the English edition to acquire.”—Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize winning poet and translator, Richard Howard, gives readers the true voice of Baudelaire in this masterful translation. Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) remains powerful and relevant for our time.

In “Spleen et idéal,” Baudelaire dramatizes the erotic cycle of ecstasy and anguish—of sexual and romantic love. “Tableaux Parisiens” condemns the crushing effects of urban planning on a city’s soul and praises the city’s anti-heroes including the deranged and derelict. “Le Vin” centers on the search for oblivion in drink and drugs. The many kinds of love that lie outside traditional morality is the focus of “Fleurs du Mal” while rebellion is at the heart of “Révolte.”

“Howard’s achievement is such that we can be confident that his Flowers of Evil will long stand as definitive, a superb guide to France’s greatest poet.”—The Nation

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The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation
The celebrated, National Book Award-winning, translation of Baudelaire’s masterpiece. “It is the English edition to acquire.”—Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize winning poet and translator, Richard Howard, gives readers the true voice of Baudelaire in this masterful translation. Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) remains powerful and relevant for our time.

In “Spleen et idéal,” Baudelaire dramatizes the erotic cycle of ecstasy and anguish—of sexual and romantic love. “Tableaux Parisiens” condemns the crushing effects of urban planning on a city’s soul and praises the city’s anti-heroes including the deranged and derelict. “Le Vin” centers on the search for oblivion in drink and drugs. The many kinds of love that lie outside traditional morality is the focus of “Fleurs du Mal” while rebellion is at the heart of “Révolte.”

“Howard’s achievement is such that we can be confident that his Flowers of Evil will long stand as definitive, a superb guide to France’s greatest poet.”—The Nation

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The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation

The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation

The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation

The Flowers of Evil: The Award-Winning Translation

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Overview

The celebrated, National Book Award-winning, translation of Baudelaire’s masterpiece. “It is the English edition to acquire.”—Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize winning poet and translator, Richard Howard, gives readers the true voice of Baudelaire in this masterful translation. Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) remains powerful and relevant for our time.

In “Spleen et idéal,” Baudelaire dramatizes the erotic cycle of ecstasy and anguish—of sexual and romantic love. “Tableaux Parisiens” condemns the crushing effects of urban planning on a city’s soul and praises the city’s anti-heroes including the deranged and derelict. “Le Vin” centers on the search for oblivion in drink and drugs. The many kinds of love that lie outside traditional morality is the focus of “Fleurs du Mal” while rebellion is at the heart of “Révolte.”

“Howard’s achievement is such that we can be confident that his Flowers of Evil will long stand as definitive, a superb guide to France’s greatest poet.”—The Nation


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781567927245
Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date: 05/03/2022
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet whose work explored taboo areas of sensuality and sexuality. His highly original style of prose-poetry influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé, among many others. He is credited with coining the term "modernity" (modernité) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis (such as mid-19th century Paris), and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience.

Richard Howard was one of the most prolific and respected twentieth-century literary critics and translators. He won a Pulitzer Prize, a PEN Translation Prize, a National Book Award (for Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil)), a Literary Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, a MacArthur Fellowship, the title of Chevalier from France's L'Ordre National du Merite, and the position of Poet Laureate of New York.

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii

A Baudelaire Chronology xvii

Discussions of Baudelaire Significant to the Translation xxii

The Flowers of Evil

To the Reader 5

Spleen and Ideal

Consecration 11

The Albatross 13

Elevation 14

Correspondences 15

"I Prize the Memory…" 16

Guiding Lights 16

The Sick Muse 18

The Muse for Hire 19

The Bad Monk 19

The Enemy 20

Artist Unknown 20

Previous Existence 21

Gypsies on the Road 22

Man and Sea 22

Impenitent 23

The Punishment of Pride 24

Beauty 24

The Ideal 25

Giantess 26

Jewels 26

The Mask 27

Hymn to Beauty 29

By Association 30

The Head of Hair 30

"Urn of Stilled Sorrows…" 31

"You'd Sleep with Anyone…" 32

Sed Non Satiata 32

"Even When She Walks…" 33

As If a Serpent Danced 34

Carrion 35

De Profundis Clamavi 37

The Vampire 37

Lethe 38

"I Spent the Night…" 39

Posthumous Regret 39

The Cat 40

Duellum 41

The Balcony 41

Possessed 42

A Phantom 43

I The Shadows 43

II The Perfume 43

III The Frame 44

IV The Portrait 44

"Suppose My Name…" 45

Semper Eadem 46

Altogether 46

"What Will You Say Tonight…" 47

The Living Torch 48

Against Her Levity 48

Reversibility 49

Confession 50

Spiritual Dawn 52

Evening Harmony 52

The Flask 53

Poison 54

Overcast 55

Cat 55

The Fine Ship 57

Invitation to the Voyage 58

The Irreparable 59

Conversation (One Side) 61

Autumnal 62

To a Madonna 63

Song for Late in the Day 64

Sisina 65

To a Creole Lady 66

Moesta et Errabunda 67

Incubus 68

Autumn Sonnet 68

Sorrows of the Moon 69

Cats 69

Owls 70

The Pipe 70

Music 71

Burial 72

A Fantastic Engraving 72

The Happy Corpse 73

The Cask of Hate 73

The Cracked Bell 74

Spleen (I) 74

Spleen (II) 75

Spleen (III) 76

Spleen (IV) 76

Obsession 77

Craving for Oblivion 78

Alchemy of Suffering 78

Sympathetic Horror 79

Heauton Timoroumenos 79

The Irremediable 80

The Clock 82

Parisian Scenes

Parisian Landscape 87

The Sun 87

To a Red-Haired Beggar Girl 88

The Swan 90

The Seven Old Men 92

The Little Old Women 94

Blind Men 97

In Passing 97

Skeleton Crew 98

Twilight: Evening 99

Gamblers 100

Dance of Death 101

Love of Deceit 103

"I Have Not Forgotten…" 104

"You Used to Be Jealous…" 104

Mists and Rains 105

Parisian Dream 106

Twilight: Daybreak 108

Wine

The Soul of the Wine 113

Ragpickers' Wine 113

The Murderer's Wine 115

The Solitary's Wine 116

Lovers' Wine 117

Flowers of Evil

Destruction 121

A Martyr 121

Lesbos 123

Damned Women: Delphine and Hippolyta 126

Damned Women 129

The Two Kind Sisters 130

The Fountain of Blood 131

Allegory 131

Even She Who Was Called Beatrice … 132

Metamorphoses of the Vampire 133

A Voyage to Cythera 134

Eros and the Skull 136

Rebellion

Saint Peter's Denial 141

Abel and Cain 142

Satan's Litanies 143

Death

The Death of Lovers 149

The Death of the Poor 149

The Death of Artists 150

Day's End 150

A Strange Man's Dream 151

Travelers 152

Additional Poems

The Fountain 161

Berthe: Her Eyes 162

Hymn 162

The Promises of a Face 163

Three Epigraphs 164

On a Portrait of Honore Daumier 164

On Manet's Lola de Valence 164

On Delacroix's Tasso in Prison 165

The Voice 165

The Unforeseen 166

To a Malabar Girl 168

A Long Way from Here 169

Romantic Sunset 169

Scrutiny at Midnight 170

Sad Madrigal 171

The Rebel 172

A Pagan's Prayer 173

Meditation 173

The Abyss 174

Icarus Laments 174

The Lid 175

The Offended Moon 175

Epigraph for a Banned Book 176

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