French Literature Reviews - 2026

Baudelaire: A Biography.
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Baudelaire by Jean-Baptiste Baronian
Gallimard, "Folio Biographies" series
ISBN: 2-07-030965-7
260 pages
€6.40

Charles Baudelaire remains one of the most influential figures in modern French poetry, celebrated for his defining role in the transition from Romanticism to symbolism and modernism. Biographies of the author of Les Fleurs du mal typically examine his complex relationship with nineteenth-century Parisian culture, his artistic criticism, and the turbulent personal circumstances that shaped his literary output. Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature and the history of modern poetry may find this volume a helpful introduction to the life and work of Baudelaire.