Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris in April 1821. When he was six years old, his father died and his mother remarried Jacques Aupick, which disrupted his peaceful life. The family moved to Lyon in 1832 and returned to Paris in 1836. Charles remained a boarder at the Louis-le-Grand college in Lyon, from which he was expelled for insubordination; however, this did not prevent him from graduating in 1839. He was interested only in literary pursuits. His unbridled dandyism worried his family, who sent him to travel around the world with a trusted captain, in the hope that he might come to his senses. After the islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, he crossed the Indian Ocean. Returning to France in 1842, he became involved with Jeanne Duval. He met Balzac, Nerval, Théophile Gautier and Théodore de Bauville. He fails to get his first articles published and runs up such debts that he is convicted in 1844 (at the age of 24)—something he does not forgive his mother for, until after the death of General Jacques Aupick in 1857.

He published his first works in the ‘Salon de 1845’, ‘Salon de 1846’ – La Fanfarlo – 1847, and contributed to the magazines ‘Tintamarre’, ‘Corsaire-Satan’, ‘Messager’, "Monde littéraire" and "Artiste", with poems and various essays.

From 1851, he began translating Edgar Allan Poe. In 1857, he published "Les Fleurs du Mal", six of which were censured by the courts.
His health was fragile, but his literary output was prolific. During his stay in Belgium, his health deteriorated, along with his misfortunes. Upon returning to Paris with his mother, he died in August 1867 at the age of 46.