Le Spleen de Paris (or Petits Poèmes en prose) were written as a ‘pendant’, a completion of his more famous Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), published in 1857. Published posthumously in 1869, they intended to capture ‘the beauty of life in the modern city’ with subjects urban: an old woman; a dog; windows, mistresses; poor people hanging around eateries. In his preface to this limited edition, Aleister Crowley, the translator, calls Baudelaire (1821–1867) ‘the most divine, the most spiritually minded, of all French thinkers.’ Baudelaire’s ‘modernity’ influenced a whole generation of writers: Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé; he remains an important French poet.]]> Charles Baudelaire]]> Books]]> Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire kept on his desk two inspirational art works: a set of engravings by Alfred Rethel depicting a more modern, ironic, and hostile Danse Macabre; and a skeleton statuette sculpted by Ernest Christophe. With left hand positioned jauntily on her hip, the female skeleton wears a gown, is garlanded with flowers, and, right arm slightly bent, cradles a mask of flesh, looking as though she were about to attend a masquerade. In his poem ‘Danse Macabre,’ Baudelaire’s skeletal coquette is perfumed, elegant, and alluring as she leads humanity in a grotesque Danse Macabre.]]> Charles Baudelaire]]>