Charles BAUDELAIRE Autographed Letter Signed Flaubert 1857 Flowers of Evil

  

Beautiful provenance: estate of Félicité Baudelaire. A half-page on a double leaf in-8 with an autograph address. Restoration of the tear from unsealing.

Size 21 x 27 cm. This letter was written the day before the legal deposit of Les Fleurs du Mal on June 12, 1857. The "copy" that Baudelaire promises to deliver is presumably his article on Madame Bovary, the publication of which was delayed for a few months; its length in L'Artiste is exactly eight columns, as he specifies in the letter.

The text will ultimately be published on October 18, 1857. L'Artiste had previously published three poems from Les Fleurs du Mal shortly before our letter, on May 10, 1857: L'Héautontimoroumenos, L'Irrémédiable, and Francisca mea laudes. I will send you half of the copy at 2 o'clock, and I will mail you the rest at dinner time.

Please let me know if this can suffice in terms of speed. A total of about 8 columns.

I am sure of my accuracy. Or to the person in charge of the layout for L'Artiste. Baudelaire, very young, became infatuated with her.

In 1846, at the age of 25, the poet began to court his sister-in-law and sent her his Choice of Consoling Maxims on Love with a half-hearted amorous letter, in which he presents himself as "a supporter of Antony's love," in other words, of adultery, and invites his half-brother's wife to "be [his] providence in the career that lies before [him] through the channel of love." According to Claude Pichois, this is a "nicely perverse game," or even an "ironic revenge," aimed at embarrassing her and provoking his half-brother, who approved of his guardianship. Whether Baudelaire was in love with Félicité or not, he made her his muse, as she inspired him to write a small "cycle" of three poems, recently studied by Andrea Schellino - and she is also thought to have served as a model for the character of Mme de Cosmelly in the short story La Fanfarlo, published in 1847. After Alphonse's death in 1862, Félicité reconnected with Caroline Aupick, who was settled in Honfleur. She was the one who kept Charles Asselineau informed about the health and then the death of Baudelaire's mother during the summer of 1871. She inherited part of Mme Aupick's estate in 1871, particularly intimate documents and letters from Charles's youth, which were preserved in her family after his death in 1902." (Source: Alde, notes regarding "Memories from Félicité Baudelaire")