Charles Baudelaire is one of the famous writers of French literature. His works manifest the French language par excellence, where a variety of rhetorical devices and rather complex vocabularies are used to formulate ideas. His poems also respect, for the most part, the stylistic devices of the classical movement, such as versification. This renowned poet was able to mix romanticism and symbolism in his collections of poems through his own visions of love, the ideal and above all beauty. Charles Baudelaire's best-known work remains the Flowers of Evil, which has been singled out by many journalists. Discover below the works of Baudelaire that have marked the history of literature and the modern world.
The Flowers of Evil: a collection of poems essential to understand the ideology of Baudelaire
Being an unhappy and cursed poet, Charles Baudelaire wrote "Les fleurs du mal" in order to evoke all social problems in a very poetic and symbolic way. Through this famous collection, Baudelaire expresses his sadness at the loss of his father, his lack of affection for his mother and his sickly judgment about love. Indeed, "Les fleurs du mal" is a work that defines the art of poetry as a mirror of suffering and existential evil. Although flowers symbolize beauty and purity, for Baudelaire, they are only ephemeral and of no use.
The Spleen of Paris: transcendence of traditional poetry
The "Spleen de Paris" is a work by Charles Baudelaire which aims to be a step towards an art that best reflects the modern world. Since for the poet "Les fleurs du mal" is already seen as the apogee of traditional poetry, he wrote "Spleen de Paris" in poetic prose, in the absence of rhythm and rhyme. This makes this collection a modern work devoid of any trace of the old style of writing, where the rules of versification such as the sonnet have been respected. This collection of poems thus aims to translate the irregularity of urban life.
Artificial Paradises: a trial under the influence of drugs
This essay is a commitment to painting reality in a way that translates reality into subjectivity. "Artificial Paradises" is structured in two parts, the first is explicitly devoted to hashish, and the second is a commentary on the book "Confession of an Opium Eater". It should be noted that this title already translates the drug, the aim of which is to stimulate the author's creativity.