Editorial Review:
|
Benediction When by the changeless Power of a Supreme Decree The poet issues forth upon this sorry sphere, His mother, horrified, and full of blasphemy, Uplifts her voice to God, who takes compassion on her. " Ah, why did I not bear a serpent's nest entire, Instead of bringing forth this hideous Child of Doom ! Oh cursed be that transient night of vain desire When I conceived my expiation in my womb ! * " Yet since among all women thou hast chosen me To be the degradation of my jaded mate, And since I cannot like a love-leaf wantonly Consign this stunted monster to the glowing grate," " I'll cause thine overwhelming hatred to rebound Upon the cursed tool of thy most wicked spite. Forsooth, the branches of this wretched tree I'll wound And rob its pestilential blossoms of their might!" So thus, she giveth vent unto her foaming ire, And knowing not the changeless statutes of all times, Herself, amid the flames of hell, prepares the pyre; The consecrated penance of maternal c
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; Benediction ; Echoes ??? ???; The Sick Muse; The Venal Muse; The Evil Monk; The Enemy ; Ill-Luck; Interior Life; Man and the Sea; Beauty; The Ideal; The Giantess ; Hymn to Beauty; Exotic Perfume; La Chevelure ; Sonnet XXVIII; Posthumous Remorse; The Balcony ; The Possessed One; Semper Eadem ; All Entire; Sonnet XLIII ; The Living Torch The Spiritual Dawn; Evening Harmony 33; Overcast Sky 34; Invitation to a Journey ? 35; "Causeiie" 37; Autumn Song ??? 3^; Sisina 39; To a Creolean Lady 4°; Moesta et Errabunda 41; The Ghost 43; Autumn Song 44; Sadness of the Moon-Goddess 45; Cats 46; Owls ??? 47; Music ??? 48; The Joyous Defunct 49; The Broken Bell 5°; Spleen 51; Obsession 5 2; Magnetic Horror 53; The Lid 54; Bertha's Eyes 55; The Set of the Romantic Sun 56; Meditation ??? ??? 57; To a Passer-by 5&; Illusionary Love 59; Mists and Rains 60; The Wine of Lovers 61; Condemned Women 62; The Death of the
|
|
Reader Reviews for The Flowers of Evil (Classic Reprint):
|
Customer Rating:  
Summary: A bad joke from Las Vegas
Comment: Don't buy this one if you want to read Baudelaire. There are many other editions out there. Personally, I would recommend an edition that has both the French original and English translation side by side. Even if you don't speak French, the rhythm becomes apparent.
Customer Rating:
Summary: New Directions Accomplishes Its Intentions: Representing The State of Translation
Comment: Advantages/features of the New Directions edition:
--Diverse translator-palate represented from various repertoires (complete&original ordering).
--Inclusion of material censored in the first edition.
--Inclusion of preface drafts.
--Appearances by high-profile names from the translation world in its era of first publication for this edition (1955).
--None of Richard Howard's prose travesties grace this volume.
Disadvantages&faults:
--Quality, method, ear-for-Baudelaire-magnitude, and command of English varies greatly. Most of the efforts fall on their face (Particularly Kunitz&Lowell: who start off the volume. Not good.) Among the stronger attempts: F.P. Sturm, C.F. Macintyre, Aldous Huxely (for one poem: Lesbians)
--Dated edition, first published in'55.
Lowell has a volume of a complete LFDM which attempts to retain the rhyme-scheme and conform to a 10 syllable-per-line basis, as compared to C.B.'s twelve. The result is mostly obtuse, un-lyrical and ponderously banal. His brief appearance in the book (some 10 poems --or not much more) is fortunate.
* * *
Summary:
The New Directions edition recommends itself, given the proliferation of less-than-scholarly efforts whom are transmogrifying permutations on a theme: anything but THE Baudelaire we know in French, in GOOD English! It's the only of its kind that presents LFDM in complete form with the original, together with something approaching intelligent editorship. What is clear from this publisher's effort: the state of translation presented is a very sorry one, though, not the fault of the compilers.
Alternatives:
Jacques Leclercq's 1955 effort demonstrates consistency and few-to-none surprises in the way of philological red-herrings (this one is available on amazon), is equally affordable on the used marketplace here, and is very attractively illustrated.
The recent Oxford edition is surprisingly good (though not great: 4/5 *stars*), and presents the original French text facing the translation, if this is what you prefer. (Avail. on Amazon as well.)
Richard Howard. --Avoid. Avoid at all costs. Avoid like a psychotic ex. Buy used if you really must, --at least then neither the publisher nor the 'translator' receive income for their identity-fraud edition of C.B.'s work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great translation, horrible edition
Comment: As a French reader of the original book, I appreciated the efforts of the translator to keep the rhymes of the original. This is spoilt by one of the poorest edition I have ever seen. The fonts are too fancy to read, the layout is not nice, I spotted 3 errors in the typography at the first read... I have the feeling that the editor spent 10 minutes overall to make this book. Avoid this buy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poems are okay, but the formatting sucks
Comment: While I was not exactly thrilled with the poetry in this book, what bothers me most are the many formatting mistakes. Two spaces when there should be one; new lines when there shouldn't be; one word, like "The," causing one line to be on two; and other seemingly minute errors that bothered me through the entire book. I am not a literature or a poetry buff, nor do I claim to know French; but I do have some writing and editing experience, and I can read. The publisher of this book insults me with these errors and I feel like I was used by paying for shotty formatting. As for the poems themselves, I guess they're okay. They weren't really my cup of tea, but they weren't horrible. I had no prior knowledge of Baudelaire before buying this book, and don't plan on buying another one of his books.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Misrepresented
Comment: What you get inside the covers of the volume which I received is NOT what you get when you "check inside" on this website. The list of contents isn't the same, the poems in my volume approach doggerel if not drivel, and there are no notes, forward, afterward, or any-ward. Very disappointed.
|
|
