Les Fleurs du mal (French pronunciation: [le flœʁ dy mal]; English: The Flowers of Evil) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. Les Fleurs du mal includes nearly all of Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867.
Navigation Two editions of Fleurs du mal were published in Baudelaire's lifetime — one in 1857 and an expanded edition in 1861. "Scraps" and censored poems were collected in Les Épaves in 1866. After Baudelaire died the following year, a "definitive" edition appeared in 1868. 1857 Fleurs du mal First edition with 100 poems 1861 Fleurs du mal
Les Fleurs du mal is composed of six sections, each with a theme—a structure that was new to French poetry. The sections are “Spleen et idéal,” “Tableaux parisiens,” “Le Vin,” “Fleurs du mal,” “Révolte,” and “La Mort.” Shifting in style from the rhetorical to the impressionistic, from the abstract to the intensely physical, Baudelaire balances banality and ...
In August of 1857, the French lawyer who had prosecuted Gustave Flaubert, Ernest Pinard, had greater success in prosecuting Charles Baudelaire for The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) (1857). The court banned six of Baudelaire’s erotic poems, two of them on lesbian themes and the other four heterosexual but mildly sado-masochistic.
Fleursdumal.org is dedicated to the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867), and in particular to Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil). The definitive online edition of this masterwork of French literature, Fleursdumal.org contains every poem of each edition of Les Fleurs du mal, together with multiple English translations — most of which are exclusive to this site and are now available ...