Selected Writings on Art and Literature
Before publishing the sensuous and scandalous poems of Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) had already earned respect as a forthright and witty critic of art and literature. This stimulating selection of criticism reveals him as a worshipper at the altar of beauty, illuminating his belief that the pursuit of this ideal must be paramount in artistic expression. Reviews of exhibitions discuss works by great painters such as Delacroix and Ingres in fascinating detail, and 'Of Virtuous Plays and Novels' sees Baudelaire as an avenging angel in defence of true art. Writings on Poe, Flaubert and Gautier evoke a profound understanding of fellow artists, while his single excursion into musical criticism, 'Richard Wagner and Tannhäuser in Paris', displays an incisive awareness of the magical power of suggestion in music.— Google Books
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Contents Introduction 7 1 The Salon of 1845 [Extract] 33 2 The Salon of 1846 [Extract] 47 3 Of Virtuous Plays and Novels 108 4 The Universal Exhibition of 1855: the Fine Arts [Extract] 115 5 Of the Essence of Laughter, and generally of the Comic in the Plastic Arts 140 6 Edgar Allan Poe, his Life and Works 162 7 Further Notes on Edgar Poe 188 8 Some French Caricaturists 209 9 Some Foreign Caricaturists 232 10 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 244 11 Théophile Gautier 256 12 The Salon of 1859 [Extract] 285 13 Richard Wagner and Tannhauser in Paris 325 14 The Life and Work of Eugène Delacroix 358 15 The Painter of Modern Life 390 Notes 437
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