Charles Pierre Baudelaire is rightly considered to have been one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. A radical, revolutionary in his own time, Baudelaire led a tempestuous, often despairing lifestyle. He's still renowned today, not only as a poet but also as an art critic and translator. Baudelaire was born on the ninth of April 1821, the only child of Francois Baudelaire (a sixty-one year old ex-priest, turned civil servant) and Caroline Defayis (twenty-seven years old). Francois, being a modestly talented poet and painter himself, installed an appreciation of the arts in his son. Charles later referred to this as 'the cult of images'. Baudelaire's father died in the February of 1827. His mother remarried in the November of 1828, to Jacques Aupick a career soldier who quickly rose through the ranks to the rank of general and later served as French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and Spain. In 1836, at the age of fifteen, Baudelaire began studying at the Lacee Louis-le-Grand a prestigious Paris school. It was here that he began to write poetry, his poems were dismissed by his tutors as examples of precocious depravity. It was also at this time that he began to experience his 'moods of spleen' deep melancholy and despair, becoming an ever more isolated figure. After being expelled from the school in 1839 for his growing insolence he went on to study at the Ecole de Droit, a Paris law college. Living at the infamous Pension Bailly boarding house, it was here that he began living the excessive lifestyle of the Bohemian, whilst falling deeper and deeper into debt and becoming ever more radical. It was also during this period that he contracted syphilis. He left Paris bound for India (a trip made at his parents bequest) on the ninth of June 1841. Throughout the trip Baudelaire remained in foul mood, expressing his dislike for the voyage. A few months after departing the ship was forced to stop of at Mauritius for repairs, there Baudelaire jumped ship and took the next boat back to Paris. Although he disliked this enforced voyage there is no question that it had a deep and profound influence on his writings. In April 1842 Baudelaire received his inheritance of 100,000 francs, with this small fortune he moved to the island of Saint Louis, spending freely on art, entertaining, and, not least, hashish and opium. It was during this year that he met the actress Jeanne Duval who became his mistress, her dark beauty being the inspiration for many of his poems. Baudelaire was becoming more despondent by lack of success and growing debts, in 1845 he attempted to commit suicide. 1847 saw the publication of his autobiographical novel 'La Fanfarlo'. Then he began work on translating the works of Edgar Allan Poe into French publishing five volumes, complete with introductory essays between 1856 and 1865. In 1857 his own poetry collection 'Les Fleurs du mal' however this was not well-received by either the public, critics or indeed the law, both Baudelaire and his publisher were prosecuted for offending public morality and six of the poems were banned. In 1861 Baudelaire found his mistress having an affair with the man she claimed was her brother. In April 1863 Baudelaire left Paris for Brussels in the hope of finding a publisher. While there he suffered a series of strokes which left him with aphasia and partial paralysis. He returned to Paris on the second July 1867. On August 31 1867 he died quietly in his mother's arms, leaving behind (unpublished) the work that would form his masterpiece, 'Paris Spleen.' Paris Spleen Publisher : New Directions Baudelaire - Pocket Poets Publisher : Everyman's Library The Flowers Of Evil Publisher : Oxford Paperbacks Available From  |
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