Collection: Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French poet, translator, and critic. He studied law in his youth but went on to pursue a literary career and a bohemian lifestyle in Paris, changing hairstyles, lovers, and residences as he racked up debt. He began his literary career as an art critic and started publishing his poetry in the mid-1840s. In 1857, he published the first edition of his most famous work, The Flowers of Evil, a work that revealed his familiarity with and affection toward the urban life of Paris. Baudelaire’s writing earned him a reputation as a “cursed poet,” a reputation he celebrated, and parts of The Flowers of Evil remained censored by the French government until 1949.