Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) was a French poet, art critic, and translator. Born and deceased in Paris, he is best known for his major work Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857), which led to a trial for offending public morality; several poems were initially removed from the collection. Baudelaire’s poetry explores contrasts including beauty and decay, melancholy and ideal. As an art critic, he wrote about contemporary painting and was particularly enthusiastic about Eugène Delacroix. He also translated numerous works by Edgar Allan Poe into French, whose writing he greatly admired. The posthumously published collection Le Spleen de Paris contributed to the development of prose poetry. Baudelaire is regarded as an important forerunner of modern French poetry and a major influence on later literary movements.