Charles Baudelaire is one of the most compelling poets of the nineteenth century. While Baudelaire's contemporary Victor Hugo is generally--and sometimes regretfully--acknowledged as the greatest of nineteenth-century French poets, Baudelaire excels in...

The French author Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867) was the poet of the modern metropolis and was one of the first great French precursors of the symbolists. He has also been recognized as one of the 19th century's finest art critics and...

"Le Dandy ... doit vivre et dormir devant un miroir." Baudelaire Baudelaire's work is far from self-evidently autobiographical. Les Fleurs du mal, for instance, cannot be easily compared to a self-declared poetic autobiography like Hugo's Contemplations where the poems are of decidedly...

An analysis of Charles Baudelaire's poetic technique shows an interest in letter-shape and sound. An emphasis on the letter 'v', an inverted cone, symbolizes a descent to the womb, an area of dangerous memories of incest, death and resurrection. The "br" or shivering sound...

Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe."Syphilis used to be a very rare disease," said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for...

Syphilis is back: The sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th Century bohemian life is making an alarming resurgence in Europe."Syphilis used to be a very rare disease," said Dr. Marita van de Laar, an expert in sexually transmitted diseases at the European Centre for...

In the following essay, Lyu discusses the tension in Baudelaire's Le Poème du haschisch between the poet's desire to pronounce a distinct separation of poetry and hashish and his ultimate inability to keep them apart.

Monroe is an American educator and critic. In the following excerpt, he maintains that economic and social concerns motivated Baudelaire's use of the prose poem.

Wright is an educator specializing in French literature. In the following essay on La Fanfarlo, she discusses the structure of the novella and assesses the relationship between the narrator and the story told.