A very useful introduction to Baudelaire's life and poetry.The poetry quotations are presented in original French and translated (Graham Robb's valiant efforts - but which is the definitive Baudelaire in English?)as footnotes.
The poet appears as a mass of contradictions - impeccably dressed for example - and a blatant self-publicist - but essentially a genius, a genius with a sense of vocation which was to involve degrading expeditions through the seedoiest underbellies of French urban and Provincal life, all and ably and enjoyably described by the author.
This book will appeal to those wanting to know about the circumstances under which the poems were written rather than a detailed exposition of individual meanings.
