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.

Supervert - Necrophilia VariationsFleursdumal.org is a labor of love produced and maintained by Supervert.

External Links

Lola de Valence

Entre tant de beautés que partout on peut voir,
Je contemple bien, amis, que le désir balance;
Mais on voit scintiller en Lola de Valence
Le charme inattendu d'un bijou rose et noir.

— Charles Baudelaire


Lola of Valencia

Among such beauties as one can see everywhere
I understand, my friends, that desire hesitates;
But one sees sparkling in Lola of Valencia
The unexpected charm of a black and rose jewel.

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)


On Manet's Picture "Lola of Valencia"

Amongst the myriad flowers on beauty's stem
It's hard to choose. Such crowds there are of them
But Lola burns with unexpected fuel
The radiance of a black and rosy jewel.

— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)