Flowers of Evil: And Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Gift Edition) »

Charles-Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9, 1821, in Paris. Living in the Latin Quarter, he immersed himself in the decadent, bohemian Paris with its salons, absinthe, and passion for all things artistic and unconventional, a lifestyle exacerbated by the inheritance he received from his late father upon turning twenty-one. Today one cannot visit the grave of Baudelaire without observing numerous bouquets of fresh flowers left in honor of France’s greatest poet.

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of nineteenth-century French poetry, Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal (“The Flowers of Evil”) is celebrated for its daring explorations of the dualities of the human soul in its struggle between good and evil, beauty and debasement, spirit and flesh, as well as for its realistic yet fantastical modern urban landscapes. The first book-length English translation of Les Fleurs du Mal by Cyril Scott, published in 1911, is presented here, a selection of 46 poems that includes such memorable works as “Le Balcon” (“The Balcony”), “L’Invitation au Voyage” (“Invitation to a Journey”), “A une passante” (“To a Passer-by”), and “Les femmes damnées” (“Condemned Women”).