The Arcades Project - Operi

"'The life of Baudelaire is a desert for anecdotes." Andre Suares, Trois Grands
Vivants (Paris), p. 270 ("Baudelaire et Les Fleurs du mal"). [J32a,3]
"'Baudelaire does not describe." Andre Suares,
p. 294 (""Baudelaire et Les Fleurs du mar').
Trois Grands Vivants (Paris),
[J32a,4]
In the "'Salon de 1859," vehement invective against l'amour-apropos of a critique
of the Neo-Greek school: "Yet aren't we quite weary of seeing paint and
marble squandered on behalf of this elderly scamp ... ? ... His hair is thickly
curled like a coachman's wig; his fat wobbling cheeks press against his nostrils and
his eyes; it is doubtless the elegiac sighs of the universe which distend his flesh, or
perhaps I should say his meat, for it is stuffed, tubulous, and blown out like a bag
of lard hanging on a butcher's hook; on his mountainous back is attached a pair of
butterfly wings." Ch. B., Oeuvres, ed. Le Dantec (Paris), vol. 2, p. 243. If.:;
[J32a,S]
"There is a worthy publication in which every contributor knows all and has a
word to say about all, a journal in which every member of the staff . .. can instruct
us, by turns, in politics, religion, economics, the fine arts, philosophy, and literature.
In this vast monument of fatuity, which leans toward the future like the
Tower of Pisa, and in which nothing less than the happiness of humankind is being
worked out . .. " Ch. B., Oeuvres, ed. Le Dantee (Paris), vol. 2, p. 258 CSalon de
1859"). (Le Globe?)156 [J32a,6]
In defense of Ricard: ""Imitation is the intoxication of supple and brilliant minds,
and often even a proof their superiority." Ch. B., Oeuvres, ed. Le Dantec, vol. 2,
p. 263 ("Salon de 1859"). Pro domo!157 [J32a,7]
·'That toueh of slyness which is always mingled with innocence." Ch. B., Oeuvres,
ed. Le Dantec, vol. 2, p. 264 ("Salon de 1859"). On Ricard.lsll [J32a,8]
Vigny in "Le Mont des oliviers" , against de Maistre:
He has heen on this earth for many long ages,
Born from harsh masters and false-speaking sages,
Who still vex the spirit of each living nation
With spurious conceptions of my true redemption. 159 [J33,1]
""Perhaps only Leopardi, Edgar Poe, and Dostoevsky experienced such a dearth of'
happiness, such a power of desolation. Round ahout him, this century, which in
other respects seems so flourishing and multifarious, takes on the terrrible aspect
of a desert." Edmond Jaloux, ""Le Centenaire de Baudelaire," La Revue hebdo­
IUndaire, 30th year, no. 27 (July 2, 1921), p. 77. [J33,2]
"All by himself, Baudelaire made poetry a method of analysis, a form ofintrospeclion.
In this, he is very much the contemporary of Flauhert or of Claude Ber-