Les Fleurs du Mal

Les Fleurs du Mal (traditional German Title: The Flowers of Evil ) is a volume of poetry, Charles Baudelaire, the 1857-1868 growing in three versions scale and a different arrangement has been issued. The first edition led to a judicial proceeding: Baudelaire was convicted of violating public morality and prohibited the further publication of six designated as offensive poems.

The Baudelaire's poetic masterpiece is about the city and its people Ennui, one associated with disgust, displeasure and annoyance alienation from existence. It influenced, after a period of dwindling perception, later strongly the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé and is considered in literary history as the starting point of modern European poetry.

Work

The extremely sophisticated, often short poems are in five ( 1857), respectively, in six (1861 /68) or less metaphorically titled departments ( Spleen et Idéal Tableaux parisiens, Le Vin, Fleurs du Mal, Révolte, La Mort ) and make such, rather than a simple anthology, a through-composed whole. The mood of these pieces is how often in the previous romance, weariness, despondency, melancholy -. Weltschmerz the The world, in Baudelaire, in keeping with the emerging realism, the big city but is presented differently in romantic literature: Mostly ugly and morbid, the man appears torn between the Christian- Platonic -conceived tendencies Idéal and Spleen, between the powers of brightness and good, and those of the dark and even Satanic. The Baudelaire also central and closely related concept of metropolitan ennuis same, Spleen has the character of a sin of disenchantment, the fascination with the disgusting and evil. In contrast, a virtue the ideal and longing.

Formation

The dating of the individual poems is disputed or impossible. Based on the testimonies of friends and acquaintances Baudelaire is assumed that most of the texts of the first edition of 1840-1850 have emerged. Almost half of the poems in the first edition had already been previously published, in 1851 eleven pieces under the title Les Limbes (Eng. limbo, limbo, limbo ) and 1855 a further 18 pieces in the Revue des Deux Mondes. This publication was already wearing the later title Les Fleurs du Mal, however, who came from the critic Hippolyte Babou. Baudelaire had originally next to Les Limbes ( the later was the 1852 published work of the writer Georges Durand) the title Les Lesbiennes (Eng. The lesbians ) envisaged, which was already mentioned in an unrealized publication announcement of 1845.

The first edition came in an edition of 1,100 copies on 25 June 1857 in the sale. Already on July 7, 1857 directed the prosecutor a prosecution for blasphemy and insulting the public morality. The last complaint was filed in February of the same year already against Gustave Flaubert respect of his novel Madame Bovary. On August 20, 1857, the court sentenced Baudelaire according to the second indictment to a fine of 300 francs. A fine was also awarded his preferred publisher, Auguste Poulet - Malassis. Six incriminating poems - Lesbos, damnées Femmes, Le Lethe, À celle qui est trop gaie, Les Bijoux Les Metamorphoses du vampire - had to be removed from the Fleurs du Mal and were not allowed to be published. By a pleading letter to the Empress Eugénie Baudelaire reached in 1858, a reduction of the penalty to 50 francs. The sentence was formally abolished in 1949.

The project developed a second edition Baudelaire from the end of 1857, since the judgment related censorship had the composition of the first edition badly damaged and he was not in any case have been satisfied with the publication. On February 9, 1861, the second version of the Fleurs du appeared time in 1500 copies, without the six censored, but another with 32, since 1857 published elsewhere poems and reorganization of content. Baudelaire described this book as opposed to other, strongly criticized by him in retrospect own works as " almost well advised ."

In Brussels, where the French courts did not have access, and where chicken - Malassis had fled from the risk of fines and jail sentences, Baudelaire tried a complete new edition of the Fleurs du Mal as édition définitive, but failed with this project. 1866 appeared in a lover edition collection Les épaves (German flotsam ) with the six censored poems and 17 new. The frontispiece showed a picture Félicien Rops ', which probably had a Félix Bracquemond created for the second edition, but not used for model design. Also, this report is being prosecuted in France. After Baudelaire's death Théodore de Banville gave up the Basics of difficult to interpret notes of the poet added a further 25 poems recast out, including eleven of the thirteen épaves and published elsewhere. This edition was published complètes the first volume of the Complete Works in December 1868. 1869 came out in Brussels a Complément aux Fleurs du Mal de Charles Baudelaire, containing the still forbidden and the non- recorded pieces of épaves. Since the posthumous additions, or insertions in Baudelaire's original arrangement, are now managed as little or regarded as unsuccessful, the version of 1861 applies to literary criticism at least since the relevant new edition of the Complete Works complètes 1975 with an appendix of the censored and later poems reference.

Reception

Victor Hugo wrote shortly after publication of the first edition, August 30, 1857 Baudelaire an enthusiastic letter: " Vos et fleurs du mal rayonnent éblouissent comme des étoiles. Continuez. The crie de toutes mes forces bravo à votre esprit Vigoureux. " ( German: ". .. Shine and sparkle like stars Keep it up I'll call your energetic spirit with all his strength to your Bravo Flowers of Evil " ) There were positive reviews written about by Jules Amédée Barbey d' Aurevilly, but also came criticism as in Figaro. In addition to the allegations prosecuted Baudelaire was suspected socialist inclinations because of the unmistakable time-critical tone of voice of his poems and the political positioning of his publisher Poulet - Malassis. Overall, the public reaction was muted; the trendsetting juste milieu of the Second Empire remained suspicious of author and work, as well as left-wing circles that missing any political protest in the poems. In February 1866 Baudelaire Les Fleurs du designated time, which were only known to a small circle of readers as " forgotten book".

Its action unfolded Les Fleurs du Mal only in a generation younger Symbolist and impressionist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé, as they stepped out of the shadow of Victor Hugo by 1880. The first German translation part turned Stefan George in 1891 ago in a facsimile handwriting of 25 copies. The scope of the Fleurs du Mal finally showed up at the turn of the 20th century, when a paradigm shift in the lyric was obvious: The poet appears from then on typologically as the margins of society standing Poète maudit (German: ostracized poet ), which the vulgarity of the world opposes passionate contempt and contradiction and its phenomena discussed ( anonymity of mass society, anti- nature of the city ).

1977, referring to the writer and artist Robert Gernhardt with its collection of nonsense stories under the title The blouses Bohemia jokingly on Les Fleurs du Mal by he made a Schüttelreim from the German translation of the title.

Editions and translations

• Claude Pichois (ed.): Charles Baudelaire: Oeuvres completes Gallimard, Paris 1975 Annotated total output.
• Charles Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du Mal - The Flowers of Evil Reclam, Stuttgart, 2011 Completely revised translation by Monika Fahrenbach guard the village.. ISBN 978-3-15-010797-3 Previous edition: Les Fleurs du Mal - The Flowers of Evil translation by Monika driving Bach Wachendorff. RUB, Stuttgart 1998 ISBN 3-15-009973-0