Charles Baudelaire
On the 10th of February 1827, Joseph-François Baudelaire died at rue Hautefeuille in Paris. The death left his nine-year-old son Charles without a father and changed the trajectory of his life forever. Caroline Dufaïss, the boy's mother, remarried Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick just one year later. This union placed a stern military figure into the household who would eventually become a French ambassador to noble courts across Europe.
Biographers have long argued that this shift created a deep psychological wound for the young poet. He found himself no longer the sole focus of his mother's affection after her new marriage took hold. In a letter written years later, he confessed to her: "There was in my childhood a period of passionate love for you." That early attachment seemed to fracture when the stepfather entered the picture.
The trauma rippled through his adult years. He regularly begged his mother for money throughout his career, often promising that a lucrative publishing contract or journalistic commission was just around the corner. His family obtained a decree to place his property in trust after he squandered much of his inheritance within a few years. He resented bitterly the loss of control over his finances, arguing at one point that allowing him to fail financially would have been the only sure way of teaching him to keep his finances in order.
In 1857, Charles Baudelaire published Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), his first and most famous volume of poems. Some of these poems had already appeared in the Revue des deux mondes (Review of Two Worlds) in 1855, when they were published by Baudelaire's friend Auguste Poulet-Malassis. The book quickly became a byword for unwholesomeness among mainstream critics of the day.
J. Habas led the charge against Baudelaire, writing: "Everything in it which is not hideous is incomprehensible, everything one understands is putrid." The principal themes of sex and death were considered scandalous for the period. He also touched on lesbianism, sacred and profane love, metamorphosis, melancholy, the corruption of the city, lost innocence, the oppressiveness of living, and wine.
Baudelaire, his publisher and the printer were successfully prosecuted for creating an offense against public morals. They were fined, but Baudelaire was not imprisoned. Six of the poems were suppressed, but printed later as Les Épaves (The Wrecks) in Brussels in 1866. Another edition of Les Fleurs du mal, without these poems, but with considerable additions, appeared in 1861. Nearly 100 years later, on the 11th of May 1949, Baudelaire was vindicated, the judgment officially reversed, and the six banned poems reinstated in France.
In 1847, Baudelaire became acquainted with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, in which he found tales and poems that had long existed in his own brain but never taken shape. From this time until 1865, he was largely occupied with translating Poe's works; his translations were widely praised. These were published as Histoires extraordinaires (Extraordinary stories) in 1856, Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires (New extraordinary stories) in 1857, Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym, Eureka, and Histoires grotesques et sérieuses (Grotesque and serious stories) in 1865.
Baudelaire saw in Poe a precursor and tried to be his French contemporary counterpart. He was not the first French translator of Poe, but his "scrupulous translations" were considered among the best. Two essays on Poe are to be found in his complete works volumes five and six. The translation work provided him with financial stability during periods when his own poetry struggled to find an audience.
His engagement with Poe also shaped his critical voice. He wrote extensively about American literature while developing his own theories of modernity. This partnership between two writers separated by ocean and language created a bridge that would influence generations of Symbolist poets who followed.
By 1859, Baudelaire's illnesses, his long-term use of laudanum, his life of stress, and his poverty had taken a toll and he had aged noticeably. His financial difficulties increased again, particularly after his publisher Poulet Malassis went bankrupt in 1861. In 1864, he left Paris for Belgium, partly in the hope of selling the rights to his works and to give lectures.
He smoked opium, and in Brussels he began to drink to excess. Baudelaire suffered a massive stroke in 1866 and paralysis followed. After more than a year of aphasia, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church. The last year of his life was spent in a semi-paralyzed state in various "maisons de santé" in Brussels and in Paris, where he died on the 31st of August 1867.
His funeral was held at the Saint-Honoré d'Eylau church with only a few dozen persons in attendance. He is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Many of his works were published posthumously. After his death, his mother paid off his substantial debts, and she found some comfort in his emerging fame.
Baudelaire coined the term modernité (modernity) to designate the fleeting experience of life in an urban metropolis. He defined it as: "the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable." This concept emerged from observations of real life during Haussmann's renovation of Paris in the mid-19th century.
He became known in artistic circles as a dandy and free-spender, going through much of his inheritance and allowance in a short period of time. His poetry brought the city's details to life in the eyes and hearts of readers. He made Paris the subject of modern poetry, focusing on the crowd, individual passers-by, and the changing nature of beauty in the rapidly industrializing city.
Marshall Berman has credited Baudelaire as being the first Modernist. He wrote: "If we had to nominate a first modernist, Baudelaire would surely be the man." The poet rejected the belief in the supremacy of nature and the fundamental goodness of man as typically espoused by earlier Romantics. Instead he embraced vice linked with decadence and refined sensual and aesthetic pleasures.
Four years after his death, Arthur Rimbaud praised him in a letter as "the king of poets, a true God." In 1895, Stéphane Mallarmé published "Le Tombeau de Charles Baudelaire," a sonnet in Baudelaire's memory. Marcel Proust, in an essay published in 1922, stated that along with Alfred de Vigny, Baudelaire was "the greatest poet of the nineteenth century."
In the English-speaking world, Edmund Wilson credited Baudelaire as providing an initial impetus for the Symbolist movement by virtue of his translations of Poe. T. S. Eliot claimed that the poet had "great genius" and asserted that his "technical mastery which can hardly be overpraised... has made his verse an inexhaustible study for later poets, not only in his own language."
Eliot also alluded to Baudelaire's poetry directly in his own work. He quoted the last line of Baudelaire's "Au Lecteur" in the last line of Section I of The Waste Land. Walter Benjamin translated Baudelaire's Tableaux Parisiens into German and published a major essay on translation as the foreword to Das Passagenwerk.
Common questions
When was Charles Baudelaire born and when did he die?
Charles Baudelaire was born on the 9th of April 1821 and died on the 31st of August 1867. He passed away in Paris after suffering a massive stroke in 1866 that left him paralyzed.
What caused Charles Baudelaire to lose control over his finances?
Charles Baudelaire squandered much of his inheritance within a few years, leading his family to obtain a decree placing his property in trust. His financial difficulties increased further after his publisher Poulet Malassis went bankrupt in 1861.
Why were six poems from Les Fleurs du mal suppressed by French authorities?
Six poems from Les Fleurs du mal were suppressed because they created an offense against public morals due to themes of sex, death, and lesbianism. The book was prosecuted for creating this offense, though Charles Baudelaire himself was not imprisoned.
How did Charles Baudelaire influence the Symbolist movement through Edgar Allan Poe?
Charles Baudelaire translated works by Edgar Allan Poe between 1847 and 1865, providing financial stability while shaping his own critical voice. Edmund Wilson credited these translations with providing an initial impetus for the Symbolist movement in the English-speaking world.
Where is Charles Baudelaire buried and when was he officially vindicated?
Charles Baudelaire is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris following his funeral at the Saint-Honoré d'Eylau church. He was officially vindicated on the 11th of May 1949 when the judgment against him was reversed and the six banned poems reinstated in France.