Baudelaire Readings

Summary:
His inclination towards melancholy, which - as Jean Starobinski notes - was the poet's intimate companion, was always cultivated by Baudelaire with both joy and dread. Present in varying degrees of intensity, it permeates The Flowers of Evil and can be read as the dominant figure. Starobinski's interpretations not only reveal many insights into the history of melancholy but also serve as examples of a reading art that preserves the texts' distinctiveness and beauty.

Authors: Starobinski, Jean; Günther, Horst (translated by the author):
Born in Geneva in 1920, he studied medicine, literature, and philosophy, and taught at many renowned universities, including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Basel, and most recently, as a professor of French literature and the history of ideas, at the University of Geneva. Jean Starobinski is considered one of the most prominent representatives of contemporary humanities and cultural studies. His latest work published by Carl Hanser Verlag is "Paths of Poetry," translated from French and with a foreword by Horst Günther (2011).