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The Flowers of Evil

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(4 Sterne; 2 Bewertungen)

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet whose work is described as combining an exoticism inherited from the Romantics with the Realism of other French writers of his time. The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal) is a book of lyric poetry and his most famous work. In it he expresses the changing nature of beauty in the rapidly industrialising Paris caused by Haussmann's renovation of the city during the mid-19th century. He coined the term modernity to designate the fleeting experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to capture that experience.

Les Fleurs du mal includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. Though it was extremely controversial upon publication, with six of its poems censored due to their immorality, it is now considered a major work of French poetry. The poems in Les Fleurs du mal frequently break with tradition, using suggestive images and unusual forms. They deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism, particularly focusing on suffering and its relationship to original sin, disgust toward evil and oneself, obsession with death, and aspiration toward an ideal world. Les Fleurs du mal had a powerful influence on several notable French poets, including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé.

These English translations by Frank Pearce Sturm (1879-1942) include a selection from the original French edition.

(Summary by Alan Mapstone and wikipedia) (1 hr 51 min)

Chapters

The Dance of Death

5:29

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Beacons

4:00

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Sadness of the Moon

1:28

Read by Alan Mapstone

Exotic Perfume

1:11

Read by KevinS

Beauty

1:16

Read by Stunning

The Balcony

2:53

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Sick Muse

1:33

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Venal Muse

1:30

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Evil Monk

1:18

Read by nighthawks

The Temptation

1:33

Read by Bruce Kachuk

The Irreparable

2:16

Read by Chris Pyle

A Former Life

1:08

Read by fshort

Don Juan in Hades

2:03

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Living Flame

1:20

Read by Bruce Kachuk

Correspondences

1:16

Read by Bruce Kachuk

The Flask

2:17

Read by nighthawks

Reversibility

1:52

Read by KevinS

The Eyes of Beauty

1:18

Read by Larry Wilson

Sonnet of Autumn

1:31

Read by Stunning

The Remorse of the Dead

1:14

Read by Algy Pug

The Ghost

1:06

Read by Stunning

To a Madonna

2:50

Read by Meribau

The Sky

1:21

Read by nighthawks

Spleen

1:33

Read by Algy Pug

The Owls

1:09

Read by Stunning

Bien Loin D'Ici

1:21

Read by Stefan Von Blon

Music

0:54

Read by Arah Craig

Contemplation

1:43

Read by Stefan Von Blon

To a Brown Beggar-maid

3:28

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Swan

4:16

Read by Adrian Stephens

The Seven Old Men

4:17

Read by Adrian Stephens

The Little Old Women

5:40

Read by Adrian Stephens

A Madrigal of Sorrow

2:26

Read by Adrian Stephens

The Ideal

1:09

Read by Adrian Stephens

Mist and Rain

1:08

Read by Agnes Robert Behr

Sunset

1:07

Read by KevinS

The Corpse

2:43

Read by KevinS

An Allegory

1:25

Read by KevinS

The Accursed

2:38

Read by nighthawks

La Béatrice

2:51

Read by Alan Mapstone

The Soul of Wine

1:43

Read by KevinS

The Wine of Lovers

0:58

Read by CCam

The Death of Lovers

1:06

Read by Agnes Robert Behr

The Death of the Poor

1:07

Read by Agnes Robert Behr

The Benediction

6:38

Read by Sheridan Alistair

Gypsies Travelling

1:17

Read by nighthawks

Robed in a Silken Robe

1:28

Read by Alan Mapstone

A Landscape

1:57

Read by Gwen Dillard

The Voyage

12:13

Read by Alan Mapstone

Bewertungen

(3 Sterne)

too new to this sort genre of poetry to comment?