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Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, Illustrated by Major Felten, 1931

About the Item

Published by Ives Washburn, 1931 Large Folio-sized Hardcover book; 98 pages with 16 illustrated plates by Major Felton. Translated by Lewis Piaget Shanks. Very Good Condition. A First Edition of this very rare illustrated edition, with 16 full-page striking illustrated plates. This book is complete with all text and plates, and with the original publisher's covers; Published nearly 90 years ago, this big book is now very rare. "Les Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 (see 1857 in poetry), it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism. Baudelaire's section Tableaux Parisiens, added in the second edition (1861), is considered one of the most formidable criticisms of 19th-century French modernity. This section contains 18 poems, most of which were written during Haussmann's renovation of Paris. Together, the poems in Tableaux Parisiens act as 24-hour cycle of Paris, starting with the second poem Le Soleil (The Sun) and ending with the second to last poem Le Crépuscule du Matin (Morning Twilight). The poems featured in this cycle of Paris all deal with the feelings of anonymity and estrangement from a newly modernized city. Baudelaire is critical of the clean and geometrically laid out streets of Paris which alienate the unsung anti-heroes of Paris who serve as inspiration for the poet: the beggars, the blind, the Industrial worker, the gambler, the prostitute, the old and the victim of imperialism. These characters whom Baudelaire once praised as the backbone of Paris are now eulogized in his nostalgic poems. For Baudelaire, the city has been transformed into an anthill of identical bourgeois that reflect the new identical structures that litter a Paris he once called home but can now no longer recognize." "Charles Pierre Baudelaire; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, a book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of beauty in the rapidly industrializing Paris during the mid-19th century. Baudelaire's highly original style of prose-poetry influenced a whole generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé, among many others. He is credited with coining the term "modernity" (modernité) to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience."
  • Creator:
    Major Felten (Artist),Charles Baudelaire (Author)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 11.03 in (28 cm)Width: 8.67 in (22 cm)Depth: 0.79 in (2 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1931
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use. Minor fading. Very good. Tight binding, some slight discolouration to edges of boards. Bookplate to inside of board. Inner pages clean with no foxing.
  • Seller Location:
    CA, CA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2102318177262

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