Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire (9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, critic, and translator whose work helped transform 19th‑century poetry and laid groundwork for modern poetry. He is best known for Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), published in 1857, a collection that pairs beauty with decadence, eroticism, and mortality while challenging conventional moral and aesthetic boundaries. Baudelaire’s poetry, marked by musical precision, vivid urban imagery, and symbolic complexity, influenced later Symbolists and the broader trajectory of European poetry. He also produced prose poetry in Le Spleen de Paris (The Spleen of Paris), published posthumously in 1869, and wrote influential critical essays on art and modern life, including The Painter of Modern Life (1863).

Baudelaire was born in Paris to a family of means and underwent a formative period of travel and study before dedicating himself to literature. He lived in Paris as a writer and critic, developing a theory of modernity and urban experience that would echo through generations of poets. In addition to his own poetry, he became a key figure in translating and disseminating the works of Edgar Allan Poe in France, helping to shape Poe’s reception and Baudelaire’s own sensibility.

His career faced significant controversy: Les Fleurs du mal was the subject of legal action for obscenity in 1857, resulting in penalties and the temporary suppression of certain poems. Financial difficulties and health problems accompanied his later years. Baudelaire died in Paris at the age of 46; his legacy endures in his influence on modern French poetry and his articulation of the modern urban experience.