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Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet known for his book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). His poems captured modern urban life in Paris through precise descriptions and use of rhyme and rhythm. He coined the term "modernity" to describe the fleeting experiences of life in a changing metropolis. Baudelaire had an unconventional upbringing, losing his father at a young age and later developing a troubled relationship with his mother and stepfather as he pursued a career in literature against their wishes.

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Charles Baudelaire was a 19th century French poet known for his book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). His poems captured modern urban life in Paris through precise descriptions and use of rhyme and rhythm. He coined the term "modernity" to describe the fleeting experiences of life in a changing metropolis. Baudelaire had an unconventional upbringing, losing his father at a young age and later developing a troubled relationship with his mother and stepfather as he pursued a career in literature against their wishes.

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Charles Pierre Baudelaire 

(UK: /ˈboʊdəlɛər/, US: /ˌboʊd(ə)ˈlɛər/;[1] French: [ʃaʁl(ə) bodlɛʁ] i; 9 April


1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also worked as an essayist, art critic and
translator. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhyme and rhythm, containing an
exoticism inherited from Romantics, and are based on observations of real life.[2]
His most famous work, a book of lyric poetry titled Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil),
expresses the changing beauty of nature in the rapidly industrializing Paris caused
by Haussmann's renovation of Paris during the mid-19th century. Baudelaire's original style of
prose-poetry influenced a generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur
Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé. He coined the term modernity (modernité) to designate the
fleeting experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the responsibility of artistic expression to
capture that experience.[3] Marshall Berman has credited Baudelaire as being the first Modernist.[4]

Early life[edit]
Baudelaire was born in Paris, France, on 9 April 1821, and baptized two months later at Saint-
Sulpice Roman Catholic Church.[5] His father, Joseph-François Baudelaire (1759–1827),[6] a
senior civil servant and amateur artist, who at 60, was 34 years older than Baudelaire's 26-year-
old mother, Caroline (née Dufaÿs) (1794–1871); she was his second wife.[7]
Joseph-François died during Baudelaire's childhood, at rue Hautefeuille, Paris, on 10 February
1827. The following year, Caroline married Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick [fr], who later
became a French ambassador to various noble courts.
Baudelaire's biographers have often seen this as a crucial moment, considering that finding
himself no longer the sole focus of his mother's affection left him with a trauma, which goes some
way to explaining the excesses later apparent in his life. He stated in a letter to her that, "There
was in my childhood a period of passionate love for you."[8] Baudelaire regularly begged his
mother for money throughout his career, often promising that a lucrative publishing contract or
journalistic commission was just around the corner.
Baudelaire was educated in Lyon, where he boarded. At 14, he was described by a classmate as
"much more refined and distinguished than any of our fellow pupils...we are bound to one
another...by shared tastes and sympathies, the precocious love of fine works of literature."[9]
Baudelaire was erratic in his studies, at times diligent, at other times prone to "idleness". Later,
he attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, studying law, a popular course for those not yet
decided on any particular career. He began to frequent prostitutes and may have contracted
gonorrhea and syphilis during this period. He also began to run up debts, mostly for clothes.
Upon gaining his degree in 1839, he told his brother "I don't feel I have a vocation for anything."
His stepfather had in mind a career in law or diplomacy, but instead Baudelaire decided to
embark upon a literary caree

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