As Flores do Mal (Les Fleurs du Mal)

About The Flowers of Evil by Baudelaire:

Les Fleurs du mal (English: The Flowers of Evil) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 (see 1857 in poetry), it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The subject matter of these poems deals with themes relating to decadence and eroticism.

Overview

The initial publication of the book was arranged in six thematically segregated sections:

• Spleen et Idéal (Spleen and Ideal)
• Tableaux parisiens (Parisian Scenes)
• Le Vin (Wine)
• Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil)
• Révolte (Revolt)
• La Mort (Death)

The foreword to the volume, identifying Satan with the pseudonymous alchemist Hermes Trismegistus and calling boredom the worst of miseries, neatly sets the general tone of what is to follow:
Si le viol, le poison, le poignard, l'incendie,
N'ont pas encore brodé de leurs plaisants dessins
Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins,
C'est que notre âme, hélas! n'est pas assez hardie.

If rape and poison, dagger and burning,

Have still not embroidered their pleasant designs

On the banal canvas of our pitiable destinies,

It's because our souls, alas, are not bold enough!

The preface concludes with the following malediction:
C'est l'Ennui! —l'œil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
—Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!

It's Ennui! — his eye brimming with spontaneous tear

He dreams of the gallows in the haze of his hookah.

You know him, reader, this delicate monster,

Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!

Literary significance and criticism

The author and the publisher were prosecuted under the regime of the Second Empire as an outrage aux bonnes mœurs (trans. "an insult to public decency"). As a consequence of this prosecution, Baudelaire was fined 300 francs. Six poems from the work were suppressed and the ban on their publication was not lifted in France until 1949. These poems were "Lesbos", "Femmes damnés (À la pâle clarté)" (or "Women Doomed (In the pale glimmer...)"), "Le Léthé" (or "Lethe"), "À celle qui est trop gaie" (or "To Her Who Is Too Gay"), "Les Bijoux" (or "The Jewels"), and " Les "Métamorphoses du Vampire" (or "The Vampire's Metamorphoses"). These were later published in Brussels in a small volume entitled Les Épaves (Jetsam).
On the other hand, upon reading "The Swan" or "Le Cygne" from Les Fleurs du mal, Victor Hugo announced that Baudelaire had created "un nouveau frisson" (a new shudder, a new thrill) in literature.
In the wake of the prosecution a second edition was issued in 1861 which added 32 new poems, removed the six suppressed poems and added a new section entitled Tableaux Parisiens.
A posthumous third edition with a preface by Théophile Gautier and including 14 previously unpublished poems was issued in 1868.

Adaptations

In 1969, American electronic music composer Ruth White released an album called, "Flowers of Evil." It contains some quotes from Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil."
In 1986, the Australian rock band Dead Can Dance released an album called "Spleen and Ideal", which used quotes from "Flowers of Evil" in the lyrics.
In 1987, the Swiss rock band Celtic Frost released an album called Into the Pandemonium. It contains a song called, "Tristesses de la Lune," which borrows significantly from the poems in Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil."
In 1990, the Japanese rock band Buck-Tick released an album called "Aku no Hana," which translates to "Flowers of Evil" or "Evil Flowers."
In 1995, the singer from the Canadian rock band The Viletones, Steven Leckie, named his controversial avante-garde art gallery and clothing line (which was sold in the art gallery) in Toronto, "Fleurs du Mal."
In 2003, the Finnish rock band HIM released the album Love Metal, which contains a song (and the corresponding music video) called "The Funeral of Hearts." The chorus of Funeral of Hearts says, "Love's the funeral of hearts and a plea for mercy when angels cry blood on flowers of evil in bloom."
In 2005, Israeli singer Maor Cohen released an album whose Hebrew title translates to "Flowers of Evil." It is a compilation of songs from the book, as translated to Hebrew by the Israeli poet Dori Manor. The music was composed by Cohen himself.
In 2007, German rock band Sopor Aeternus released an album called "Les Fleurs du Mal," which is also the title of a song on the album.
In 2006, Lee Hyeon-sook released a manga called "The flowers of evil".
In 2008, English opera and Broadway singer Sarah Brightman released an album called Symphony, which contains a song called "Fleurs du Mal."
In 2010, the Finnish rock band HIM released the album Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, Chapters 1-13, which contains a song called "Love, the Hardest Way." There is a line in the chorus that says, "Baudelaire in braille: Baby, love the hard way." The dark and romantic story by Baudelaire that HIM is referring to is most likely "Flowers of Evil" because the song also says, "Pretty, like a flower on a tomb." HIM also released an album that contains an acoustic version of all the tracks from Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, Chapters 1-13, which is called Baudelaire in Braille.
In, 2011, The Arcade Fire released a song called "Speaking in Tongues," which includes the line "hypocrite reader, my double, my brother."
In 2012, American rock singer Marilyn Manson's released his 8th studio album, Born Villain, which he states was inspired by "Flowers of Evil". He has also made a watercolor painting called "Les Fleurs du Mal." The painting contains two red flowers with dead faces on a dry panorama.
In September 2012, the Swedish band Therion announced it's new album, named "Les Fleurs du Mal".

Extracts Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Fleurs_du_mal

More Info: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6099 - http://fleursdumal.org/