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.
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The initial publication of the book was arranged in six thematically segregated sections:
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.
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!
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A posthumous third edition with a preface by Théophile Gautier and including 14 previously unpublished poems was issued in 1868.
In 1969 the book was partially adapted by the electronic music pioneer Ruth White in her album "Flowers of Evil", being recited over a electronic set.
Notorious punk band The Viletones's leader Steven Leckie named his art gallery in Toronto "Fleurs Du Mal", which became known for breaking out controversial avante garde artists.
The poems provided the lyrics to the 1986 album Spleen and Ideal by the Gothic musical group Dead can Dance.
Japanese rock band Buck-Tick used the title for their 1990 album, Aku no Hana (English: "Evil Flowers").
Israeli singer Maor Cohen's 2005 album, the Hebrew name of which translates to French as "Les fleurs du mal", is a compilation of songs from the book. The texts were translated to Hebrew by Israeli poet Dori Manor, while the music was composed by Cohen himself.
The 2008 album Symphony by English soprano Sarah Brightman includes a song entitled "Fleurs du Mal".