14th trade paperback edition
Condition: Near fine, very light edge wear, price sticker on rear cover. Softcover.
Publishing Info: New Directions Paperback, New York.
ISBN: 9780811200073
Translated by Louise Varese
Set in a modern, urban Paris, the prose pieces in this volume constitute a further exploration of the terrain Baudelaire had covered in his verse masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil: the city and its squalor and inequalities, the pressures of time and mortality, and the liberation provided by the sensual delights of intoxication, art, and women. Published posthumously in 1869, Paris Spleen was a landmark publication in the development of the genre of prose poetry—a format which Baudelaire saw as particularly suited for expressing the feelings of uncertainty, flux, and freedom of his age—and one of the founding texts of literary modernism.
More books by or about Baudelaire on shop books
Poetry Foundation overview of Baudelaire's life and work
Poets.org biography of Baudelaire
