BAUDELAIRE (Charles).

BAUDELAIRE (Charles).

Les Fleurs du Mal [in] Revue des Deux Mondes. Paris, Bureau de la Revue des Deux Mondes, 1855. Fort in-8, 1336 pp, green half-chagrin, ribbed spine decorated with gilt and black cold fillets, gilt title and tomaison (period binding). Volume X of the XXVth year, second series of the new period, of the Revue des Deux Mondes including the PRE-ORIGINAL EDITION of 18 poems from Les Fleurs du mal, published in the issue of June 1, 1855, two years before the Poulet-Malassis edition. The definitive title of the collection appears here for the first time. Perhaps sensing the scandal to come, the publisher thought it prudent to accompany this first publication with a subtly disempowering footnote: ""What seems to us worthy of interest here is the vivid expression, curious even in its violence, of a few failings, a few moral pains which, without sharing or discussing them, we should like to know as one of the signs of our times. It seems to us, moreover, that there are cases where publicity is not merely an encouragement, where it can have the influence of useful advice, and call on true talent to free itself, to strengthen itself, by widening its paths, by extending its horizon". Slightly rubbed, a few small scattered brown spots.