The Arcades Project - Operi

In Honfleur, he had hung two paintings over his bed. One of them ? painted by his
father as pendant to the other? showed an amorous scene; the other, dating from
an earlier time? a Temptation of Saint Anthony. In the center of the first picture, a
baccbante. [J27,2]
Sand is inferior to SadeP'I:ll [J27,3]
"We ensure that our confessions are well rewarded' ? 132-this should be compared
with the practice of his letters. [J27,4]
Seilliere (p. 234) cites d'Aurevilly: "Poe's hidden objective was to con·
found the imagination of his times . . . . Hoffmann did not have this terrible
power:' Such puissance terrible was surely Baudelarre's as well. [J27,5]
On Delacroix (according to Seilliere, p. 114): 'Delacroix is the artist best
equipped to portray modern woman in her heroic manifestations, whether these
be understood in the divine or the infernal sense . .. _ It seems that such color
thinks for itself, independently of the objects it clothes. The effeet of the whole is
almost musical. "133 [J27,6]
Fourier is said to have presented his minute discoveries" too "pompously. "131[.
[J27,7]
Seilliere represents as his particular object of study what in general determines
the standard for the literature on Baudelarre: "It is, in effect, the theoretical
conclusions imposed on Charles Baudelarre by his life experiences that I am
particularly concerned with in these pages." Ernest Seilliere, Baudelaire (paris,
1931), p. 1. [J27,8]
Eccentric hehavior in 1848: ·" They've just arrested de Flotte,' he said. Is it
because his hands smelled of gunpowder? Smell mine! ? ? ? Seilliere, Baudelair-e
(Paris, 1931), p. 51. [J27,9]
Seilliere (p. 59) righdy contrasts Baudelarre's postulate, according to which the
advent of Napoleon III is to be interpreted in de Maistre's sense as "providen·
tial;' with his comment: "My rage at the coup d'etat. How many bullets I braved!
Another Bonaparte! What a disgrace!" Both in "Mon Coeur mis it nu:"'';
[J27a,1]
The book by Seilliere is dlOrougbly imbued with the position of its author, who is
president of the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. A typical premise:
"The social question is a question of morality" (p. 66). Individual sentences by
Baudelaire are invariably accompanied by the author's marginal glosses.
[J27a,2]