Two editions of Fleurs du mal were published in Baudelaire's lifetime — one in 1857 and an expanded edition in 1861. "Scraps" and censored poems were collected in Les Épaves in 1866. After Baudelaire died the following year, a "definitive" edition appeared in 1868.

1857 Fleurs du mal
First edition with 100 poems
1861 Fleurs du mal
Second edition missing censored poems but including new ones
1866 Les Épaves
Twenty-three "scraps" including the poems censored from the first edition
1868 Fleurs du mal
Definitive edition published after Baudelaire's death
All Poems (Alphabetical)
Every poem from each edition
Audio
Readings of Baudelaire mostly in French

Fleursdumal.org is a labor of love produced and maintained by Supervert.

External Links

Horizon Noir
French resource
Baudelaire Microhistory
The life of Baudelaire day by day
W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire studies
Extensive resource
31 Translations of Spleen
by Nicholas Moore
Fleurs du mal
Translated by Cat Nilan
Le Balcon
Translated into English by 20 different translators
Mag4.net
Excellent Arthur Rimbaud site, in French

Les Épaves / Scraps

1866

Although Baudelaire had become increasingly successful as a writer, his success brought him more notoriety than income. In 1864 he moved from Paris to Brussels, largely to evade creditors. Earlier his friend and publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis had also moved to Brussels to escape legal trouble, so together the two decided to put out another book of Baudelaire's verse.

This new work was not intended to be a comprehensive collection. It was, instead, a collection of incidental and recent verse — hence the title "épaves" or scraps. It also included the six poems censored from the first edition of Les Fleurs du mal. Published in February 1866 in an edition of only two hundred and sixty copies (plus ten hors commerce), Les Épaves contained twenty-three poems, an introduction by Poulet-Malassis, and a frontispiece of the author by Félicien Rops.

It was the last book overseen by Baudelaire himself, who suffered a debilitating stroke in March, 1866, and died the following year back in Paris.