Baudelaire in English

by Charles Baudelaire, Carol Higgins Clark (Editor), Robert Sykes (Editor)

Perhaps the most explosively original mind of his century, Charles Baudelaire has proved profoundly influential well beyond the borders of nineteenth-century France. Writers from Lord Alfred Douglas to Edna St. Vincent Millay, from Aldous Huxley to Seamus Heaney, from Arthur Symons to John Ashbery, from Basil Bunting to Robert Lowell, have all attempted to transmit in English his psychological and sexual complexity, his images of urban alienation. This superb addition to the Poets in Translation series brings together the translations of his poetry and prose poems that best reveal the different facets of Baudelaire's personality: the haughtily defiant artist, the tormented bohemian, the savage yet tender lover, and the celebrant of strange and haunted cityscapes.

Genres: Poetry

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Public condemned Les fleurs du mal (1857), obscene only volume of French writer, translator, and critic Charles Pierre Baudelaire; expanded in 1861, it exerted an enormous influence over later symbolist and modernist poets.

Reputation of Charles Pierre Baudelaire rests primarily on perhaps the most important literary art collection, published in Europe in the 19th century. Similarly, his early experiment Petits poèmes en prose (1868) ( Little Prose Poems ) most succeeded and innovated of the time.

From financial disaster to prosecution for blasphemy, drama and strife filled life of known Baudelaire with highly controversial and often dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Long after his death, his name represents depravity and vice. He seemingly speaks directly to the 20th century civilization.

Reviews

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid translation of Baudelaire, but it appears to be out of print. These poems are dark and decadent, elegant and spiritual. Baudelaire is one of my favorite French poets.

"But what can eternity of damnation matter to someone who has felt, if only for a second, the infinity of delight?"

THAT QUOTE.

ETA: This is not five stars because Baudelaire must be read in French. In translation, some of the beauty is lost.

[Vincent Flock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not base my rating here upon the original author's poetry (which I do adore), but on the way in which it is presented in this volume. This excellent anthology includes the original French for many of the poems, allowing easy comparison, and often provides multiple versions of more famous pieces by different notable translators. The ability to enjoy Baudelaire's own dark musicality along with the bright, splendid homages of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Roy Campbell especially is a thrill for any lover of verse.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last of my poets in English books following on from Proust and Huysman, this was my first encounter with Baudelaire’s poetry. Not sure it’s for me but I enjoyed it in parts, even in translation

[Ezri Baedeker · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's the first poetry collection I've read that includes multiple translations, found it fun to compare.