This is an important document with regard to getting to understand the thought process and beliefs and ideals of one of the most controversial and influential poets, the first true modernist poet who was unafriad of showing people that poetry isn't all about love and romance, it can be about bitterness, death, hyprocrisy, all the sordid details of life which few others before him dared to probe.

The book itself is rather brief, and at times it is hard to follow what Baudelaire is getting at in his notes, but it does reveal that Baudelaire was as fragile a person as anyone else, with hopes, dreams, ideals which were either fulfilled or shattered. To understand his work, you need to understand his preoccupations. The "Intimate Journals" is as good a starting point.