Charles+Baudelaire

Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born on April 9th of 1821 in Paris, France into a Roman Catholic family of his father, Francois Baudelaire, and his mother Caroline. His father was a civil servant at the time and a non professional artist, though he did die in Charles early childhood in 1827. Following his death, a year later Caroline married Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick, who later became an ambassador in the French courts. After his childhood Charles became a French poet, art critic, and also served as a translator for Edgar Allen Poe, all of which helped him exceed brilliantly in his writing leading him to create his most famous work ‘The Flowers of Evil.’ Into his final years living Baudelaire worked mainly as a translator for other works, and articles, but years of stress, financial issues, and illnesses caught up to him and he died on August 31, 1867.

Baudelaire’s was a very influential author of the 19th century especially for his most famous volume of works Les Fleurs de mal (The Flowers of Evil.) Not only was this publishing his most famous but also his very first, the poems focused on themes many wouldn't dare to express at the time, such as death,depression,loss of innocence, alcohol, urban corruption, along with other similar topics. Baudelaire also used his works to express the changes around the beauty of his home of Paris as it was growing and modernizing in the 19th century. The Flowers of Evil was in fact a shock to the community that Baudelaire, his publisher, and the books printer were prosecuted for an offence against public morality, this lead to 6 poems in his volume being suppressed.

Baudelaire definitely broke through the wall of the traditional and classic themes of writing by choosing those that were rarely touched and expressed in the way he did, this lead to him having a huge impact of the modernism in the culture at the time. Of course with this act Charles gained him loyal followers that not only encouraged him but looked up to him for his unique publications, but with the positivity comes negativity, Charles also gained others people eyes upon his work but this time with more of a controversial and judging notion.