Charles Baudelaire

The poet who found beauty in the ugliest things

Who is he?

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet known for the scandalous themes in his works.

Why is he an overman?

Charles makes a revolution in art with his bravery to explore topics that society fears. More importantly though, in his poems it gets very clear that despite his outrageous way of life, his soul is pure and strives for the elevated things in life.

Works like The Albatross show his deep understanding of the difference between natural beauty and might and the cruelty of small minds who will try their best to break this beauty. Abel and Cain questions the traditional idea of good and evil, placing obedience and revolt against each other and defends the right of man to fight for freedom and his rightful place in the cosmos. The Carrion is a poem in a category of its own where grace and the transient in life mix to create a work of genius.

Curious facts:

When Charles turned 21, he received a substantial inheritance from his father’s estate. However, he plunged into a life of extravagance and consequently a judge placed his finances under the control of a legal guardian. For the rest of his life, he had to apply for small sums of money, effectively being treated like a minor. He viewed this as a deep humiliation and bitterly resented his mother and stepfather for initiating it.

In 1841, his family tricked him into boarding a ship bound for Calcutta, India, in the hope that a long voyage might reform him. He didn’t get far: the ship stopped at Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean, and Charles returned to France after a few months.

Quotes:

The beautiful is always bizarre.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

You gave me your mud and I have turned it into gold.

Short biography:

09 April 1821 – 31 August 1867

Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris, France. When he was just six years old, his father died, and his mother soon remarried a strict and conventional military officer who would later become a general and ambassador. Baudelaire resented his stepfather and felt emotionally abandoned by his mother, whose affection he had deeply depended on. Charles studied law briefly but soon immersed himself in the literary and artistic circles of Paris, adopting a bohemian lifestyle that fueled both his creativity and personal struggles.

His Les Fleurs du mal, first published in 1857, caused an immediate scandal due to its bold exploration of sensuality, decay, and the darker sides of the human soul. Several poems were censored for immorality, and Charles was fined by the French government. Despite this, the collection is now regarded as one of the most important works of 19th-century poetry, bridging Romanticism and the emerging Symbolist movement. His rich imagery, musical language, and focus on themes like ennui, beauty in the grotesque, and spiritual crisis broke new literary ground.

Throughout his life, Charles struggled with financial instability, drug use, and poor health. One of the most significant relationships in his life was with Jeanne Duval, a Haitian-born actress and dancer. Their stormy, decades-long affair inspired many poems in Les Fleurs du mal. In 1866 he had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. He died the following year at the age of 46. Though his life was marked by controversy and hardship, Baudelaire’s work has left an enduring legacy.

Notable work:

The Carrion

The Albatross

Abel and Cain