Le Spleen de Paris
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Le spleen de Paris, also known as Paris Spleen or Petits Poèmes en prose, is a collection of 51 short prose poems by Charles Baudelaire. Twenty individual poems were published in La Presse in 1862. The collection was published in 1869, posthumously by his sister and it is related with the modernist literary movement.
Baudelaire mentions he had read Aloysius Bertrand's Gaspard de la nuit at least twenty times before starting this work. Though inspired by Bertrand, Baudelaire's prose poems were based on Parisian contemporary life instead of the medieval background which Bertrand employed. He told about his work: "These are the flowers of evil again, but with more freedom, much more details, and much more mockery"
These poems have no particular order, have no beginning and no end and they can be read like thoughts or short stories in a stream of consciousness style. The point of the poems is "to capture the beauty of life in the modern city", using what Jean-Paul Sartre has labeled as being his existential outlook on his surroundings.
Written twenty years after the fratricidal June Days that ended the ideal or "brotherly" revolution of 1848, Baudelaire makes no attempts at trying to reform society he has grown up in but realizes the horrors of the progressing modernizing of Paris. In poems such as "The Eyes of the Poor" where he writes (after witnessing an impoverished family looking in on a new cafe): "Not only was I moved by that family of eyes, but I felt a little ashamed of our glasses and decanters, larger than our thirst...", showing his acknowledgment of the poor conditions in his city, and also showing the feelings of despair that accompanies the acknowledgment.
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Citations
- Quel est celui de nous qui n'a pas, dans ses jours d'ambition, rêvé le miracle d'une prose poétique, musicale sans rythme et sans rime, assez souple et assez heurtée pour s'adapter aux mouvements lyriques de l'âme, aux ondulations de la rêverie, aux soubresauts de la conscience?
C'est surtout de la fréquentation des villes énormes, c'est du croisement de leurs innombrables rapports que naît cet idéal obsédant.
- Which one of us has not dreamed, on ambitious days, of the miracle of a poetic prose: musical, without rhythm or rhyme; adaptable enough and discordant enough to conform to the lyrical movements of the soul, the waves of revery, the jolts of consciousness?<p>Above all else, it is residence in the teeming cities, it is the crossroads of numberless relations that gives birth to this obsessional ideal.
- "Dédicace, À Arsène Houssaye" [1]
- Which one of us has not dreamed, on ambitious days, of the miracle of a poetic prose: musical, without rhythm or rhyme; adaptable enough and discordant enough to conform to the lyrical movements of the soul, the waves of revery, the jolts of consciousness?<p>Above all else, it is residence in the teeming cities, it is the crossroads of numberless relations that gives birth to this obsessional ideal.
- L'étude du beau est un duel où l'artiste crie de frayeur avant d'être vaincu.
- The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before being defeated.
- III: "Le Confiteor de l'artiste" [2]
- The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before being defeated.
- Mais qu'importe l'éternité de la damnation à qui a trouvé dans une seconde l'infini de la jouissance?
- What matters an eternity of damnation to someone who has found in one second the infinity of joy?
- IX: "Le Mauvais Vitrier" [3]
- What matters an eternity of damnation to someone who has found in one second the infinity of joy?
- Et à quoi bon exécuter des projets, puisque le projet est en lui-même une jouissance suffisante?
- What good is it to accomplish projects, when the project itself is enjoyment enough?
- XXIV: "Les Projets" [4]
- What good is it to accomplish projects, when the project itself is enjoyment enough?
- Il n'est pas de plaisir plus doux que de surprendre un homme en lui donnant plus qu'il n'espère.
- There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
- XXVIII: "La Fausse Monnaie" [5]
- There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
- On n'est jamais excusable d'être méchant, mais il y a quelque mérite à savoir qu'on l'est; et le plus irréparable des vices est de faire le mal par bêtise.
- To be wicked is never excusable, but there is some merit in knowing that you are; the most irreparable of vices is to do evil from stupidity.
- XXVIII: "La Fausse Monnaie"
- To be wicked is never excusable, but there is some merit in knowing that you are; the most irreparable of vices is to do evil from stupidity.
- L'âme est une chose si impalpable, si souvent inutile et quelquefois si gênante, que je n'éprouvai, quant à cette perte, qu'un peu moins d'émotion que si j'avais égaré, dans une promenade, ma carte de visite.
- The soul is a thing so impalpable, so often useless and sometimes so embarrassing that I suffered, upon losing it, a little less emotion than if I had mislaid, while out on a stroll, my calling-card.
- XXIX: "Le Joueur généreux" [6]
- The soul is a thing so impalpable, so often useless and sometimes so embarrassing that I suffered, upon losing it, a little less emotion than if I had mislaid, while out on a stroll, my calling-card.
- La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas.
- The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist. <ref>Indirect source of the quote in The Usual Suspects "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."</ref>
- XXIX: "Le Joueur généreux"
- The devil describes having heard this statement made by a Parisian preacher
- The finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist. <ref>Indirect source of the quote in The Usual Suspects "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."</ref>
- Cette vie est un hôpital où chaque malade est possédé du désir de changer de lit.
- This life is a hospital where each patient is possessed by the desire to change his bed.
- XLVIII: "Anywhere out of the world" [7]
- This life is a hospital where each patient is possessed by the desire to change his bed.
French TOC
- À Arsène Houssaye
- I. L'Étranger
- II. Le Désespoir de la vieille
- III. Le Confiteor de l'artiste
- IV. Un plaisant
- V. La Chambre double
- VI. Chacun sa chimère
- VII. Le Fou et la Vénus
- VIII. Le Chien et le Flacon
- IX. Le Mauvais Vitrier
- X. À une heure du matin
- XI. La Femme sauvage et la Petite-maîtresse
- XII. Les Foules
- XIII. Les Veuves
- XIV. Le Vieux Saltimbanque
- XV. Le Gâteau
- XVI. L'Horloge
- XVII. Un hémisphère dans une chevelure
- XVIII. L'Invitation au voyage
- XIX. Le Joujou du pauvre
- XX. Les Dons des fées
- XXI. Les Tentations ou Eros, Plutus et la Gloire
- XXII. Le Crépuscule du soir
- XXIII. La Solitude
- XXIV. Les Projets
- XXV. La Belle Dorothée
- XXVI. Les Yeux des pauvres
- XXVII. Une mort héroïque
- XXVIII. La Fausse Monnaie
- XXIX. Le Joueur généreux
- XXX. La Corde
- XXXI. Les Vocations
- XXXII. Le Thyrse
- XXXIII. Enivrez-vous
- XXXIV. Déjà !
- XXXV. Les Fenêtres
- XXXVI. Le Désir de peindre
- XXXVII. Les Bienfaits de la lune
- XXXVIII. Laquelle est la vraie ?
- XXXIX. Un cheval de race
- LX. Le Miroir
- XLI. Le Port
- XLII. Portraits de maîtresses
- XLIII. Le Galant Tireur
- XLIV. La Soupe et les Nuages
- XLV. Le Tir et le Cimetière
- XLVI. Perte d'auréole
- XLVII. Mademoiselle Bistouri
- XLVIII. Any where out of the world
- XLIX. Assommons les Pauvres !
- L. Les Bons Chiens
- Épilogue.
English TOC
- The Stranger
- The Old Woman's Despair
- Artist's Confiteor
- A Wag
- The Double Room
- To Every Man His Chimera
- Venus and the Motley Fool
- The Dog and the Scent Bottle
- The Bad Glazier
- One O'Clock in the Morning
- The Wild Woman and the Fashionable Coquette
- Crowds
- Widows
- The Old Clown
- Cake
- The Clock
- A Hemisphere in Your Hair
- L'Invitation Au Voyage
- The Poor Child's Toy
- The Faeries' Gifts
- The Temptations or Eros, Plutus and Fame
- Evening Twilight
- Solitude
- Projects
- The Beautiful Dorothea
- The Eyes of the Poor
- A Heroic Death
- Counterfeit
- The Generous Gambler
- The Rope
- Vocations
- The Thyrsus
- Get Drunk
- Already!
- Windows
- The Desire to Paint
- The Moon's Favors
- Which Is the Real One?
- A Thoroughbred
- The Mirror
- Sea-Ports
- Portraits of Mistresses
- The Gallant Marksman
- The Soup and the Clouds
- The Shooting Gallery and the Cemetery
- Loss of a Halo
- Miss Bistoury
- Any Where Out of the World
- Beat Up the Poor
- The Faithful Dog
See also