"L'étude du beau est un duel où l'artiste crie de frayeur avant d'être vaincu."

Petits Poèmes en prose

Charles Baudelaire died #OTD in 1867. French poet, translator, and literary and art critic whose reputation rests primarily on Les Fleurs du mal, which was perhaps the most important and influential poetry collection published in Europe in the 19th century. via @Britannica

Books translated/or by Charles Baudelaire at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1947

#books #literature #poetry

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Discussion

At the heart of the debates on the function of literature in his day, Baudelaire detached poetry from morality, proclaiming it entirely destined for Beauty and not Truth. As the title of his collection suggests, he attempted to weave links between evil and beauty, fleeting happiness and the unattainable ideal, violence and voluptuousness, but also between the poet and his reader and even between artists through the ages.