Baudelaire
by Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Turnell (Translator)

One of the greatest French poets of the 19th century, who formed with Stephane Mallarme and Paul Verlaine the so-called Decadents.

Baudelaire was born in Paris. He studied at the College Royal, Lyon (1832-36) and Lycee Louis-le-Grand, Paris (1936-39), from where he was expelled. His intention was from his early age to live by writing, but still he enrolled as a law student in 1840 at the Ecole de Droit. Probably at this time he became addicted to opium and contracted syphilis, which turned out to be leathal. During this period Baudelaire fell heavily in debt and he never finished his law studies.

In 1841 Baudelaire was sent to on a voyage to India, but he stopped off at Maurius. On his return to Paris in 1842 he met Jeanne Duval, a woman of mixed race, who became his mistress and inspiration for such poems as "Black Venus". From 1842 Baudelaire lived on his inheritance from his father. Two years later this income was deprived by law of control over it by the Counseil Judicaire.

In the late 1840s Baudelaire become involved in politics. He fought at the barricades during the revolution of 1848 and in the same year he also cofounded the journal Le Salut Public. He was associated with Proudhon and opposed the coup d'etat of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte in December 1851. Subsequently Baudelaire remained aloof from politics and adopted increasingly reactionary attitude. In the 1850s he was involved with Marie Daubrun (1854-55) and Apollonie Sabatier (1857).

Baudelaire published his first novel, the autobiographical LA FANFARIO in 1847. From 1852 to 1865 he was occupied in translating Edgar Allan Poe's writings. When his LES FLEURS DU MAL (FLOWERS OF EVIL) appeared in 1857 all involved — author, publisher, and printer — were prosecuted and found guilty of obscenity and blasphemy.