Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil),…

Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil), the first collection of poems by the French critic and acclaimed translator Charles Baudelaire, find a small appreciative audience, but greater public attention is given to their subject matter.

The principal themes of sex and death are considered scandalous, and the book becomes a byword for unwholesomeness among mainstream critics of the day.

Baudelaire, his publisher, and the printer are successfully prosecuted for creating an offense against public morals.