Charles BAUDELAIRE lists the six condemned poems from Les Fleurs du Mal.

Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)

Autographed letter signed to Léon Reynard.

One page in-8°. Autograph address and postal markings.

Slnd [Paris. February 29, 1860]

Unpublished letter to the Pléiade correspondence.

An extraordinary and precious letter from the poet listing to his correspondent the six condemned poems from Les Fleurs du Mal.

__________________________________________________

Lethe.

The Jewelry.

to the one who is too cheerful.

Lesbos.

Damned Women (No. 1, Delphine and Hippolyte)

The Metamorphoses of the Vampire.

Yours truly, dear Sir, and a thousand thanks for your kindness.

Ch. Baudelaire.

__________________________________________________

On September 7, 1859, wishing to publish some literary studies, Léon Reynard—a journalist for the Moniteur Universel —wrote to Baudelaire in these terms: “  My friend and yours, Mr. Alfred Delvau, has kindly given me a letter of recommendation for you. I would have liked to give it to you personally; but since, despite all my wishes, this is not possible, I am taking the liberty of sending it to you, however excessively flattering it may be. The work he mentions consists of a series of prose studies, in which the influence of Les Fleurs du Mal plays an important role. Your book, Sir, is one of those that has most preoccupied me, and I believe that the mark it has left on my mind will never fade. It was therefore only right that these studies be dedicated to you, and I have placed your name at the beginning of my work.” I would be happy, sir, if you would be so kind as to take a look at them, and if they please you, if you would help me with the very difficult task of publication. It is to give them to you, and above all to see you, that I would like to meet you. If you would therefore spare a quarter of an hour of your life to receive me, you would be obliged, sir, to one of your brothers suffering in moral distress and to your kind L. Reynard.

These literary studies appear never to have materialized. Did Baudelaire ever deign to meet with Reynard as he had requested? It's far from certain. Nevertheless, the poet sent him the list of the six condemned plays in what remains, to this day, the only known letter from Baudelaire to this correspondent.

***

Les Fleurs du mal was published on June 21, 1857. A few days later, on July 7, the collection was referred to the public prosecutor's office by order of the Directorate General of Public Security. On August 20, Baudelaire was summoned to the 6th Correctional Chamber of the Seine court. The poet was prosecuted on two charges: outrage against public morality and decency, and offense against religious morality.

Facing prosecutor Ernest Pinard, Baudelaire's lawyer, Gustave Chaix d'Est-Ange, defends the idea that the author painted evil so that readers would distance themselves from it.

Despite this, the poet and his publisher were convicted of "offenses against public morality and decency" due to "obscene and immoral passages or expressions," and forced to pay a fine and remove six poems from the collection. "A ridiculous surgical operation," in Baudelaire's words, which wounded him to the very core of his being.

It was only in 1949 that the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation, at the request of the president of the Society of Men of Letters, overturned the judgment and reinstated the six poems that had been banned from publication.