Publisher's Synopsis
The original poems in this book were published by Charles Baudelaire in 1861 under the title Les Fleurs du Mal. This was the second edition of the same name, but it differs from the first edition both in the increased number and in the order of poems. The first edition, consisting of one hundred poems appeared in 1857, but almost immediately after publication Baudelaire and his editor were prosecuted and condemned for 'vulgar realism offending against public decency'. Following the trial six of the poems were censored and banned by the court. The six banned poems are included here, with their translations, after the main text of the 1861 edition.
