Flowers of Evil: A Selection (New Directions Paperbook, 71) (English and French Edition)

by Charles Baudelaire

Book Overview

The greatest French poet of the 19th century, Baudelaire was also the first truly modem poet, and his direct and indirect influence on the literature of our time has been immeasurable.Flowers of Evil:... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081120006X
• Release Date: June 1955
• Publisher: New Directions
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

GREAT TRANSLATION!!!

THIS IS A FANTASTIC TRANSLATION! AND MY FAVORITE EDITION OF BAUDELAIRE BESIDES THE COMPLETE FLOWERS OF EVIL ALSO FROM NEW DIRECTIONS PUBLISHING.

The finest translation of Baudelaire in English

This bilingual edition (masterfully translated by Norman Shapiro) carefully transposes the French originals into a formal, poetic English idiom, which captures both the meaning and the music of Baudelaire, the fallen angel and champion of evil. Though conventional in terms of his metrics and poetic forms, Baudelaire is arguably the first great Modernist poet. One dives into the murky miasmata of these pages to discover a world of perverse pleasures, wrathful and sordid imagery and unregenerate vice glorified by one of its most eloquent spokesmen. Baudelaire, a tortured personality, in which profound guilt is contraposed with carnal lust, Satanism, delight in cruelty and a longing for hell, is one of the towering giants of modern European literature. His poetry is a bitter fruit that few can savour with impunity.

O, where have you gone, Baudelaire?

Flowers of Evil is teeming with imagery that is, at times, lofty, and others, bitter. My favorite edition is the 1955 New Directions Paperbook edition. He was truly a poet who lived and thought rather than the masses who merely muse on living. Read his poetry and step lightly through the flowers.

By far the best treatment Baudelaire has received in English

Shapiro manages to capture Baudelaire's essence without sacrificing his form. These versions read like English poetry. They are the best I have read--and I have read them all, past and present. Highly recommended for admirers of Baudelaire and students of the craft (and art!) of literary translation.