Charles Baudelaire 
Paris Spleen 
little poems in prose

<P>Between 1855 and his death in 1867, Charles Baudelaire inaugurated a new—and in his own words ‘dangerous’—hybrid form in a series of prose poems known as Paris Spleen. Important and provocative, these fifty poems take the reader on a tour of 1850s Paris, through gleaming cafes and filthy side streets, revealing a metropolis on the eve of great change. In its deliberate fragmentation and merging of the lyrical with the sardonic, Le Spleen de Paris may be regarded as one of the earliest and most successful examples of a specifically urban writing, the textual equivalent of the city scenes of the Impressionists. In this compelling new translation, Keith Waldrop delivers the companion to his innovative translation of The Flowers of Evil. Here, Waldrop’s perfectly modulated mix releases the music, intensity, and dissonance in Baudelaire’s prose. The result is a powerful new re-imagining that is closer to Baudelaire’s own poetry than any previous English translation.</P>

Table of Content

<P>Translator’s Introduction<BR>Dedication: for Arsène Houssaye<BR>The Stranger<BR>An Old Woman’s Despair<BR>The Artist’s Confiteor<BR>A Joker<BR>Double Bedroom<BR>To Each His Chimæra<BR>The Fool and Venus<BR>Dog and Flask<BR>The Bad Glazier<BR>One A.M.<BR>Wild Woman and Little Darling<BR>The Crowd<BR>Widows<BR>The Old Showman<BR>Cake<BR>The Clock<BR>A Hemisphere in a Head of Hair<BR>Invitation to the Voyage<BR>A Toy for the Poor<BR>Fairy Gifts<BR>Temptations or Eros, Plutus and Glory<BR>Evening Twilight<BR>Solitude<BR>Planning<BR>Dorothea the Beautiful<BR>The Eyes of the Poor<BR>An Heroic Death<BR>The False Coin<BR>Generous Gambler<BR>The Rope<BR>Callings<BR>The Thyrsus<BR>Be Drunk<BR>Already!<BR>Windows<BR>The Urge to Paint<BR>Moon Favors<BR>Which Is the True?<BR>A Thoroughbred<BR>The Mirror<BR>The Port<BR>Mistresses Portrayed<BR>The Gallant Marksman<BR>Soup and Clouds<BR>Shooting-Gallery and Cemetery<BR>Lost Halo<BR>Mademoiselle Bistoury<BR>Anywhere Out of the World<BR>Knock Down the Poor!<BR>Good Dogs</P>

About the author

<P>CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821–1867) wrote some of the most influential poetry of the nineteenth century in books including Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris. KEITH WALDROP is author of numerous collections of poetry and is the translator of The Selected Poems of Edmond Jabes, as well as works by Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne-Marie Albiach, and Jean Grosjean.</P>