Les Fleurs du Mal.

With engraved portrait of Baudelaire, by Manet after Nadar (Harris 46) added as frontispiece. Title printed in red and black with publisher's device. 2 leaves, 248 pp., 2 leaves index. 12mo. Late 19th century dark green half morocco and corners, finely decorated spine with gilt lettering, top edge gilt, untrimmed (190 x 122 mm). Bookplate A. Meurice. Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857. First edition, first issue, with the faulty running title on p. 31 and p. 108, containing the six poems which were later supressed. The cycle of poems "Les Fleurs du Mal" is the only collection of poems with an European impact together with Eliots "The Wast Land". It grew over the years from the forties, and was to have the title "Les lesbiennes", later "Les limbes". A substantial selection was published in the "Revue des deux Mondes" in 1855, where the present title was used for the first time. However, the flowers are the poems themselves in perfectly constructed alexandrines. After the publication of the book, G. Bourdin triggered a violent controversy with a review in the "Figaro", which ended in the infamous lawsuit of 20th August 1857, where Baudelaire and his publisher were condemned to a fine and to removing six poems (Les bijoux, Le Léthé, A celle qui est trop gaie, Lesbos, Femmes damnées, Les métamorphoses du vampire); they were torn out of the present edition, and omitted in the second edition published in 1861 and subsequently. The verdict, issued by the same court which condemned "Madame Bovary", was only revoked in 1949. - Fine copy, large margins. - Carteret I, 118-123 and illus.; Vicaire I, 341; En français dans le texte, 276. LITERATURE: FRENCH ; LITERATUR: FREMDSPRACHIGE ;