French Literature Reviews - 2026

Andrea Schellino, Dans l'atelier de Charles Baudelaire
Poetry and Poetics

The "Baudelaire dossier", one of the most thoroughly studied corpora in modern literature, might seem closed and resistant to any critical inquiry seeking to uncover the compositional methods behind his work. This is especially true since the poet insisted on presenting only a perfectly polished finished product, keeping the public entirely shielded from the "rouge", the "shackles", the "second thoughts", and the "ink-stained proofs"—in short, from "all the horrors that make up the sanctuary of art".

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Andrea Schellino holds a Ph.D. from Paris-Sorbonne University, where he defended his dissertation on "The Concept of Decadence from Baudelaire to Nietzsche" in 2017. He heads the Baudelaire research group at ITEM.

Andrea Schellino explores the meticulous compositional methods of Charles Baudelaire, challenging the poet's carefully curated image of effortless perfection. While Baudelaire famously sought to shield his audience from the arduous labor of creation—the drafts, corrections, and ink-stained proofs that he deemed the hidden horrors of the sanctuary of art—this study examines the material and intellectual realities of his writing process. Situated within modern literary criticism and textual scholarship, the volume builds upon decades of rigorous research into the Baudelaire dossier, offering fresh perspectives on how one of France's most influential poets constructed his enduring legacy.

This rigorous scholarly work will particularly appeal to academics, graduate students, and dedicated readers of nineteenth-century French literature who wish to deepen their understanding of poetic genesis and stylistic evolution. By investigating the tension between the pristine finished product and the hidden workshop of the writer, the book provides valuable tools for researchers examining nineteenth-century aesthetics, fin-de-siècle decadence, and the broader tradition of modern poetry. It serves as an essential resource for those engaging with textual genetics and the complex interplay between artistic intention and poetic form.