Book VI, 6-10 Summary

Stanza 6: Maldoror reflects on his uncertain future, in which he fears he will reap the consequences of his continual moral decline. He looks forward only to the opportunity of committing more crimes, well aware that he only hastens his own downfall.

Stanza 7: Maldoror meets a madman on a bridge and talks to him. The madman is momentarily coherent—his madness seems to come and go in fits—and tells him the story about his father whom he blames for the death of his three sisters, the "three Daisies." His father, once a heavy drinker, had reformed his ways and became a very quiet, irritable man. He was particularly annoyed by a canary the family bought—he thought it was mocking him—and one day trampled the cage with the bird inside under his steel boots...