The Flowers of Evil

Baudelaire's best-known collection of poems, first published in 1857. It moves through sections on spleen and ideal, Parisian scenes, wine, rebellion and death. The poems circle around desire, guilt, boredom and the search for beauty in an imperfect world. Some pieces were condemned by a French court for offending public morals, and a few were removed from later editions. The book is now seen as a founding work of modern poetry, admired for its strict forms and its unsparing, sensuous imagery of city life.