Baudelaire, Charles: The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal)

Translated by Aaron Poochigian (Liveright, hardcover)

Publication Date: December 7, 2021

Publisher Marketing: On the 200th anniversary of Baudelaire’s birth comes this stunning landmark translation of the book that launched modern poetry.

A shocking, controversial work in its own time and the most influential book of poetry of the nineteenth century—“the greatest exemplar in modern poetry in any language” (T.S. Eliot)—Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil is a gritty, often perverse, exploration of the underbelly of urban modernity.

Acclaimed translator and poet Aaron Poochigian tackles this revolutionary text, one of the most challenging to translate in all of modern poetry, with an ear exquisitely attuned to Baudelaire’s lyrical innovations and an intuitive feel for the work’s dark and brooding mood. Poochigian’s version captures the incantatory, almost magical, effect of the original—reanimating for today’s reader Baudelaire’s “unfailing vision” that “trumpeted the space and light of the future” (Patti Smith).

An introduction by Dana Gioia offers a probing reassessment of the supreme artistry of Baudelaire’s masterpiece, and an afterword by Daniel Handler explores its continued relevance and appeal. This deluxe, dual-language edition allows readers to commune with the original poems and their electric, revelatory translations.