Mysterious – and unpublished – letter from Charles BAUDELAIRE from Brussels.

Charles Baudelaire (1821.1867)

Signed autograph letter.

One page in-8°.

[Brussels] October 22, 1864.

Unpublished letter to the Pléiade correspondence.

“Poulet Malassis lives at 35 bis (and not 13) rue de Mercelis, suburb of Ixelles.

I live on Rue de la Montagne, Hôtel du Grand Miroir. Your devoted good. Charles Baudelaire.”

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“Dear Sir, Thank you very much for your excellent letter. My astonishment and my pleasure were great. I am writing a letter to Mr. Prévost to express all my gratitude. I think I will be in France in about twenty days at the latest. I will pay you a visit and ask for the item in question.

Poulet Malassis lives at 35 bis (and not 13) rue de Mercelis, suburb of Ixelles. – I live on Rue de la Montagne, Hôtel du Grand Miroir. Your devoted good. Charles Baudelaire.

All these people here are so stupid that they can't even tell me exactly how much postage to Madrid costs. »

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In April 1864, heavily in debt, Baudelaire left for Belgium to undertake a lecture tour, but his talents as an enlightened art critic met with little success. He then settled in Brussels and prepared a pamphlet against his short-lived host country which, in his eyes, represented a caricature of bourgeois France. The fierce Poor Belgium will remain unfinished.

Only five months after this letter, during a visit to the Saint-Loup church in Namur, on March 15, 1866, Baudelaire lost consciousness in the square. This collapse is followed by brain disorders and aphasia. The resulting hemiplegia prevented the poet from writing correctly and from March 23, 1866, his letters were only dictated.

On October 13, 1864, the publisher of Les Fleurs du Mal, Auguste Poulet-Malassis, was officially registered in Brussels at 35 bis rue de Mercelis. It is noted at this time that he is a habitual offender and the authorities seem to leave him in peace. Life in Brussels was cheaper than in Paris and he found the printing resources more developed than in France.

Bibliography: Claude Pichois. Auguste Poulet-Malassis. Baudelaire's Publisher .