Baudelaire wrote brilliant poetry, and it wasn't the stuff a gentleman could recline into his leather chair with his pipe with to relax in the 19th C without (unless he was totally thick) realising that a lot of the poems (especially in spleen and ideal) are focused mainly on the dark and rotting side of life. 'spleen' was for baudelaire a sort of depressive feeling of ennui and dark restlessness, and ideal its opposite; an ecstatic state of spiritual well-being. the collection of poems ranges between these opposing poles (it is generally thought that b was a manic depressive) and are beautiful.
a lot of people in my french lit class really disliked B; saying he was a weirdo and really disgusting - some of the images and themes are, but i think those people just couldn't confront/think about the dark side of life, which B translates into his poetry and knew so well.
having written all about how dark B's poetry is, and how some people find it depressing, i personally find some of them quite uplifting - for example in one lengthy poem about a corspe rotting in the sunshine, the poet contemplates how one day his body and soul will be reduced to such a state. but implicit in the poem is hat fact that the flowers in the surrounding field grow out of such rotten material, that life is cyclic and that almost nothing is eternal.
even if you're not used to poetry, i would recommend this, as long as you're not squeamish!


A collection of poems evoking 19th century bohemiancity life   April 14, 2000
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Les Fleurs de Mal is a meditation of the problem of being moral in a new industrial society where the distinction between good and evil no longer seems to be a distinction that can be made. Some of the poems were banned when they were first composed but this collection restores them to their rightful place within the chapters. This is a pretty good translation of the poems although it does sacrifice some of the meaning of the lines in French in order to produce rhyme in English. Read this for a beautiful and striking evocation of bohemian life.