The Beauty of Baudelaire : The Poet As Alternative Lawgiver

"This book offers the first comprehensive close reading in any language of the complete works of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Taking full account of his critical writings on literature and the fine arts, it provides fresh readings of Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris. It situates these works within the context of nineteenth-century French literature and culture and reassesses Baudelaire's reputation as the 'father' of modern poetry. Whereas he is traditionally considered to have rejected the public role of the writer as moralist, educator, and political leader and to have dedicated himself instead to the exclusive pursuit of beauty in art, this book contends not only that he rejected Art for Art's sake but that he saw in 'beauty'--defined not as an inherent quality but as an effect of harmony and rich conjecture--an alternative ethos with which to resist the tyrannies of ideology and conformism. Contrarian in his thinking and provocatively innovative in his poetic practice, Baudelaire fell foul of the law when six poems in Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) were banned for obscenity. In the second edition (1861), substantially recast and enlarged, the poet as alternative lawgiver made plainer still his resistance to the orthodoxies of his day. In a series of major critical articles he proclaimed the 'government of the imagination', while from 1855 until his death he developed an alternative literary form, the prose poem--a thing of beauty and an invitation to imagine the world afresh, to make our own rules."--Publisher's website Cover The Beauty of Baudelaire: The Poet as Alternative Lawgiver Copyright Dedication Preface Acknowledgements Contents A Note on References and Abbreviations Introduction: An Unacknowledged Legislator? Baudelaire on Trial Baudelaire as Lawgiver? Part I: Resistance 1: The Poet of Resistance The Poet as Contrarian The Poet as Artist and Outlaw The Poet as Moralist The Poet as Nomothete 2: The Poet-Artist as Double Agent Baudelaire in Context The Poet-Artist as Double Act Baudelaire as Comic Artist? 3: The Poet-Artist as Performer Beauty as ‘Ivresse’ Beauty as Resistance Part II: Melancholy 4: Melancholy and Baudelaire Melancholy Baudelaire’s Melancholy Starobinski and Baudelaire 5: Melancholy and Satan Melancholy and Beauty Melancholy in Context ‘Le Satan de Bénichou’ Melancholy, ‘le Malheur’, and ‘le Mal’ Melancholy and Progress 6: Lesbos and Limbo: Towards Les Fleurs du Mal Women, Flowers, Wine From Lesbos to Limbo: ‘Fleurs du Mal’, or the Melancholy of Desire Les Limbes (1851): The Melancholy of Non-difference 7: The Beauty of Ill-Being: From Sappho to Satan ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ (1855): Towards the Beauty of Melancholy ‘Douze poèmes’ (1851–2/1857): Enter Satan Les Fleurs du Mal (1857): ‘La Satanica Commedia’? 8: Les Fleurs du Mal (1857/1861): New Beginnings The ‘Architecture’ of Les Fleurs du Mal A New Poetry ‘Correspondances’ A New Beauty 9: Les Fleurs du Mal (1857/1861): New Endings New Frames for Old ‘Obsession’ Embracing ‘le Mal’ ‘Le Voyage’: The Tree of Desire 10: Melancholy and the Poetic Act: Decomposition and Composition Part III: Imagination 11: Imagination and Resistance: The Case of Poe ‘Edgar Allan Poe, sa vie et ses ouvrages’ (1852) ‘Notes nouvelles sur Edgar Poe’ (1857) 12: The Government of the Imagination: The Salon de 1859 Imagination and Creation Imagination and Religion Imagination and Freedom Imagination and Sculpture 13: Imagination and Conjecture: Gautier and Hugo Melancholy and Imagination: Beyond Poe Gautier Hugo 14: Imagination and Suggestion: Wagner, Guys, Delacroix Wagner Guys Delacroix Part IV: Poetry in Verse 15: The Poetry of Passion: Sex, Beauty, and Verse The Nature of ‘Love’ The Beauty of ‘Love’ ‘La Chevelure’ The Beauty of Resistance The Body of the Poem: ‘Le Serpent qui danse’ 16: The Performance of Melancholy: The Duel and the Waltz Melancholy versus Beauty Poems for an Angel Verse Dance The Sense of an Ending 17: Versification and the Poetic Idea 18: Poetry in the City: Melancholy and Time in ‘Tableaux parisiens’ ‘Paysage’ The Capital of Melancholy The Capital of Time 19: The Poet and the City: The Seer as Sightseer in ‘Tableaux parisiens’ Seeing Painting Part V: Prose Poetry 20: The Inauguration of the Prose Poem Against Nature, against the Light of Day: ‘Le Crépuscule du soir’ (1855) Against Advice: ‘La Solitude’ (1855) Alone at Twilight: ‘La Solitude’ and ‘Le Crépuscule du soir’ (1862/4) 21: Prose Poetry and the Press: The Poetics of Resistance Petits Poèmes en prose or Le Spleen de Paris? Sacred Temple or Butterfly of War? The Feuilleton of La Presse Collusion or Resistance? The Prose Poem and the Press 22: The Question of Intent: Mystification and Perplexity Polyphony and Conjecture Qui parle? Broken Panes: ‘Le Mauvais Vitrier’ 23: The Voice of the Stranger: Reality and Imagination A Double Room of his Own Cloud-Gazing 24: The Poet in the World: Empathy and Performance Public Spaces: Street, Park, Fairground, Boulevard Resistance Comedy 25: The Beauty of the Prose Poem Street Art, or the Beauty of Inclusion Music, or the Beauty of Shape Life’s Harmonies, or the Beauty of Rhythm Conclusion: Beauty and the Poet as Alternative Lawgiver Beauty Lawgiving The Beauty of Redress Bibliography Primary Sources Baudelaire Baudelaire’s reception Other Primary Sources Secondary Sources Works on Baudelaire Other Index Baudelaire's Poertry in Verse Collections Individual Poems Baudelaire's Prose Poems Individual Prose Poems Other Works by Baudelaire General Index This book offers the first comprehensive close reading in any language of the complete works of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Taking full account of his critical writings on literature and the fine arts, it provides fresh readings of Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris. It situates these works within the context of nineteenth-century French literature and culture and reassesses Baudelaire's reputation as the 'father' of modern poetry. Whereas he is traditionally considered to have rejected the public role of the writer as moralist, educator, and political leader and to have dedicated himself instead to the exclusive pursuit of beauty in art, this book contends not only that he rejected Art for Art's sake but that he saw in 'beauty'-defined not as an inherent quality but as an effect of harmony and rich conjecture-an alternative ethos with which to resist the tyrannies of ideology and conformism. 0Contrarian in his thinking and provocatively innovative in his poetic practice, Baudelaire fell foul of the law when six poems in Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) were banned for obscenity. In the second edition (1861), substantially recast and enlarged, the poet as alternative lawgiver made plainer still his resistance to the orthodoxies of his day. In a series of major critical articles he proclaimed the 'government of the imagination', while from 1855 until his death he developed an alternative literary form, the prose poem-a thing of beauty and an invitation to imagine the world afresh, to make our own rules A substantial study of the works of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) that provides fresh and detailed readings of his poetry in verse and prose.