Ian on Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire was born in 1821 in Paris to Joseph-Francois Baudelaire and Caroline Archimbaut Dufays. His father died when he was just six years old and his mother remarried to Major Jacques Aupick. They moved to Lyons in 1833 and Charles was forced to attend a military boarding school, which he was kicked out of for refusing to hand over a note passed to him. He went and spent two years living a bohemian lifestyle in the Latin Quarter of Paris, contracting syphilis sometime along the way.

His family (driven by his step-father) decided to ship Baudelaire off to India in 1841 in an attempt to beat the bohemian out of him. He was back in Paris by the next year, to collect his inheritance. He ended up living as a Dandy, which is like the wealthy cousin of the bohemian. In his lavish spending he managed to spend half the family fortune in two years. His family took him to court and got him a “wealth management” lawyer who gave him a tiny allowance regularly paid for the rest of his life. He supplemented this income as an art critic. His first published book of poetry had descriptions of lesbian love and vampires and thus was considered “obscene” by the bourgeois people of Paris. He continued publishing until his death at the hands of syphilis on august 31, 1867. He was 46 years old.

His work is very vivid and reflects a lot of the ideology of dandyism and bohemianism. Before this I had heard his name before in relation to dandyism, but never really looked into who he was. Overall he represents both of these archetypes, which makes his work very interesting.

[Ms. Schamess notes: Ian, you need a third link--can you find us a really rich resource devoted only to Baudelaire's work? I am sure it exists]