Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides) [Paperback]

Charles Baudelaire (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0486270920 | ISBN-13: 978-0486270920 | Publication Date: May 1, 1992

Controversial book of verse, first published in 1857, presented in a handsome dual-language edition, together with superb selection of great French poet's other works: prose poems from "Spleen of Paris," critical essays on art, music, and literature, as well as personal letters. Line-by-line English translation, with original French text on facing page.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486270920
• ISBN-13: 978-0486270920
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not The Complete Les Fleurs, July 27, 2007

By 

Michael Gunther (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides) (Paperback)

I purchased this book, misled (or perhaps just too hopeful) by its title and description, expecting that it would contain facing English translations of *all* the poems in Les Fleurs Du Mal. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found only 50 of the 160 or so poems! I hope this brief notice prevents other readers from making a similar error. If you want all the poems, or better still, the complete works, in translation, then you will have to look elsewhere (I don't have a current recommendation, but will post one when I do).

That said, Wallace Fowlie's translations of the 50 selected poems are very accurate, and worth having for that reason alone. These are literal translations (what we used to call "ponies," although I am not sure why, in school.) He renders every line, pretty much word-for-word, into good understandable English, making no attempt to create a "literary" or "poetic" version. I would use these translations simply to check my understanding of the original French, and can recommend them very highly to students for that purpose.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "success de scandale"..., July 19, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides) (Paperback)

"All the bourgeois fools who incessantly utter the words immoral, immorality, morality in art, and other silly things remind me of Louise Villedieu, a five franc whore who, when accompanying me one day to the Louvre - where she had never been - started blushing and covering her face; and pulling all the time at my sleeve, she asked, before the immortal statues and paintings, how people could put such obscenities on public display" ~ Mon Coeur mis a nu (My heart laid bare)

The ministry of interior declared in 1857 that "Les Fleurs du Mal" constituted "an act of defiance in contempt of the laws which safeguard religion and morality" and both Baudelaire, the publisher and the printer was convicted on grounds of immorality, and all available copies of "Les Fleurs du Mal" was confiscated.

The courts verdict stated that whatever mitigating comments "Les Fleurs du Mal" might contain, nothing could dissipate the harmful effects of the images Mr. Baudelaire presents to the reader, and which, in the incriminated poems, inevitably lead to the arousal of the senses by crude and indecent realism.

"You know that I have only considered literature and the arts as pursuing a goal unrelated to morality, and that the beauty of conception and style alone are enough for me." ~ Baudelaire

The ban on the censored poems was not lifted until May 31, 1949!!

With "Les Fleurs du Mal" Baudelaire came to spearhead the Symbolist movement as a reaction against the prevailing naturalism in literature at the time. Baudelaire sublimated debauchery, spleen and hideousness to an art of studied elegance, but people often forget the wicked sense of cynical, black humour permeating many of his poems:

"I've just seen an adorable woman. She has the most beautiful eyes in the world - which she draws with a matchstick - the most provocative eyes - the brilliance of which is the clue solely to the khol on her eyelid - a voluptuous mouth - drawn with cochineal - and, on top of that, not a hair of her own - in short 'A GREAT ARTIST !` "

In Baudelaire's own words "A translation of poetry... may be an enticing dream, but can only ever be a dream" and therefore this dual-language book of "The Flowers of Evil/Les Fleurs du Mal" definetly is the one to get...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Intriguing of Poets, February 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides) (Paperback)

Les Fleurs du Mal is a bittersweet compilation of poems by Charles Baudelaire, the master of forlorn sentiments who lived in Paris around 1850. Unique to his style is a juxtaposition of the realm of nature with that of the modern city (Paris). Baudelaire, like Gaugin, was one of the few artists of his cohort who had traveled out of his usual frame of reference (from Paris to the islands of La Reunion and back to Paris again), instilling in his vision a lust for the exotic and for realms of simple enchantment. While many perceive his works as pessimistic, it seems to me that the elements of humour and sarcasm woven throughout his works reveal an underlying transcendence over any serious lugubrious entrapment. The French-English text here helps to expose what may have been lost or altered in the translation. Ultimately the poems and their English counterparts here maintain the glory of Baudelaire- dark and uncanny rhymes often intertwined with florid beauty and intimations of the untarnished. A timeless works, the Flowers of Evil is sublimely written.