National Book Award Winner in poetry. Charles Baudelaire's 1857 masterwork, translated to English by poet Richard Howard, along with the original French text. Scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs Du Mal remains powerful and relevant for ou
This translation of Baudelaire's magnum opus "¬‚¬" perhaps the most powerful and influential book of verse from the 19th century "¬‚¬" won the American Book Award for Translation. And the honor was well-deserved, for this is one of Richard Howard's greatest efforts. It's all here: a timeless translation, the complete French text, and Mazur's striking black and white monotypes in one elegant edition.
Praise for Richard Howard's translation of Les Fleurs Du Mal (The Flowers of Evil)
"Baudelaire revoiced?Howard's achievement is such that we can be confident that his Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil) will long stand as definitive, a superb guide to France's greatest poet."
-The Nation
"Readers of English do not have to take Baudelaire on faith any longer. For the first time he is present among us, vivid and surprisingly intact, in these fine translations."
-New York Times Book Review
"A deft and patient new translation of Les Fleurs Du Mal?Howard, it seems to me, has done what he has set out to, has given us, in English and in verse, a Baudelaire both immediately recognizable and impressively varied?It is a considerable achievement."
-New York Review of Books
"A magnificent achievement?should be the English version for a long time to come."
-Booklist
"Not until now has there been an edition of the entire work which successfully captures the distinctive voice of Baudelaire?The level of success among 151 lyrics is so high as to guarantee that Richard Howard's will be the definitive translation in the foreseeable future."
-Boston Globe
"Richard Howard, generally esteemed as the finest American translator from the French of the postwar era, offers a new version of this masterpiece?It is indubitably the English edition to acquire."
-Washington Post Book World
"[An] intelligent responsiveness to the poem's meaning informs almost every translation in this volume."
-New Republic
