Les fleurs du mal

Paris : Gründ, [1947]. Large octavo (240 x 190 mm), slightly later gilt-blocked and decorated calf, spine with gilt rule and lettering (a trifle scuffed); marbled endpapers; original illustrated stiff-card wrappers bound in, pp. 254, [1 colophon]; original French text; illustrated with six striking full-page colour plates by Mario Laboccetta; superb throughout, a fine copy.

When it was first published in 1857, Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal caused a major scandal. Six of the most decadent and erotic poems contained in the volume were deemed immoral and were immediately censored, the ban on their publication in France remaining in place right up until 1949. However, Les fleurs du mal has come to be recognised as one of the most important collections of poetry ever published: not only did it have an enormous influence on Symbolism and Modernism, but its language and imagery have continued to cast their spell over legions of writers, musicians and artists up to the present day.