The Arcades Project - Operi

to amuse myself, whether such a prodigious mass of stones, marble blocks, statues,
and walls, which are all about to collide with one another, will be gl'eatly
sullied by that multitude of brains, human flesh, and shattered bones.-I see such
terrible things in my dreams that sometimes I wish I could sleep no more, if only I
could he sure of not becoming too weary." Nadar, Charles Baudelaire intime
(Paris, 1911), pp. 136-137 [ cd. Le Dantec, vol. 2,
p. 696].22.' [J44,3]
Proust on Le Balcon" : "Many of the lines in Baudelaire's "Le Balcon' convey a
similar impression of mystery" (p. 644). This in contrast to Hugo: 'Victor Hugo
always does wonderfully what he has to do . ... But the fabricating-even when it
is a fabricating of the impalpable-is always visible." Marcel Proust, "A Propos
de Baudelaire," Nouvelle Revuef, . anqaise. 16 (Paris, 1921), pp. 643-644.225
[J44,4]
On the iterative poems: 'The world of Baudelaire is a strange sectioning of time in
which only the red-letter days can appear. This explains such frequent expressions
as "If some evening, ' and so on." M. Pronst, "A Propos de Baudelaire," Nouvelle
Revuefl'anaise, 16 (June 1, 1921), p. 652.226 [J44,S]
Meryon's letter of March 31, 1860, to Nadal': he does not wish to be photographed
by him. [J44,6]
"As to Baudelaire's "stage properties'-. .. they might provide a useful lesson for
those elegant ladies of the past twenty years, who ... would do well to consider,
when they contemplate the alleged purity of style which they have achieved with
such infinite trouble, that a man may be the greatest and most artistic of writers,
yet describe nothing but beds with "adjustable curtains' ("Pieces condamnees'),
halls like conservatories ("Une Martyre'), beds filled with subtle scents, sofas deep
as tombs, whatnots loaded with flowers, lamps burning so briefly ('Pieces condamnees
') that the only light comes from the coal fire. Baudelaire's world is a place to
which, at rare moments, a perfumed breeze from the outer air brings refreshment
and a sense of magic, . .. thanks to those porticoes ... 'open onto tmknown skies'
("La Mort'), or 'which the suns of the sea tinged with a thousand fires' ('La Vie
anterieure')." M. Pronst, '''A Propos de Baudelaire," Nouvelle Revuefranqaise,
16 (June 1, 1921), p. 652.'" []