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Baudelaire's "Satanic Verses"Author(s): Jonathan CullerSource: Diacritics, Vol. 28, No. 3, Doing French Studies (Autumn, 1998), pp. 86-100Published by: Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566466Accessed: 22-12-2015 13:33 UTC

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BAUDELAIRE

S T NIC

V E R SE S

JONATHAN

CULLER

PaulVerlaine

was

perhaps

he firstto declare he

centrality

of Baudelaire o whatwe

may

now

call modern

French studies: Baudelaire's

profound

originality

is to

"repr6senter

puissamentet essentiellement 'homme moderne" 599-600]. WhetherBaudelaireem-

bodies or

portrays

modern

man,

Les Fleurs

du

mal is seen as

exemplary

of modern

experience,

of

the

possibility

of

experiencing

or

dealing

with

what,

taking

Paris as the

exemplary

modern

city,

we have

come to call the

modern world. T. S.

Eliot

wrote,

"Baudelaire

s

indeed the

greatestexemplar

in

modern

poetry

in

any language,

for his

verseand

anguage

s

the nearest

hing

o

a

complete

renovation

hat

we

have

experienced.

But his renovationof an

attitude

owards

life is

no less

radical

and

no

less

important"

[426].

And

outsidethe field of literaturewe find

such

affirmations s

Harold

Rosenberg's

dating

of "the

traditionof the New" to

Baudelaire,

"who

exactly

one

hundred

ears

ago

invited

ugitives

fromthe

too-narrowworld of

memory

o come

aboardwith

him

n

search

of the new"

[11].

Baudelaire,

writes another

critic,

"did

more

than

anyone

else in the

nineteenth

century

to

make

the

men and

women

of his

century

aware of themselves

as

moderns....

If

we hadto

nominate

a first

modernist,

Baudelairewould

surely

be the

man"

[Berman

132-33].

There

seems to

be

considerable

agreement

on

this

point,

but,

surprisingly,

here is

great

differenceof

opinion

aboutwhat it

is that

makes

Baudelairemodernand

worthy

of

special

attention.

s

it,

as Albert

Thibaudetand

Walter

Benjaminargue,

hat

he

was

the

first

rue

poet

of

the

city,

the first o take

the alienated

xperience

of

life in

the

modern

city

as

the norm?Or s

it,

as

Leo

Bersani

claims,

that

Baudelaire

discoveredand

displayed

he

mobilityof fantasyandof thedesiring imagination?Oris it, as Paul de Manmaintains,

that

Baudelaire nventsmodem

self-consciousness

about

poetry

tself,

producing

poems

that

allegorically

expose

the

operations

of

the

lyric?

There are

many

competing

accounts of

what is

most

particularly

modern

and

important

bout

Baudelaire,

but

the one

thing

on

which contentious

critics seem to

agree

is that there is a side

of Baudelairethat

is of no

interest

today,

that

belongs

to a

bas

romantismeand is the

very

antithesis of

Baudelaire's

modernity,

of Baudelaire the

founderof

modern

poetry:

his is

the

Baudelairewho

invokes

demonsand he Devil. Most

critics

today

pass

over this in

silence,

but even

those

who

explicitly

address

this

Baudelaire eem to find him

an

embarrassment.Even theauthorof a bookentitled The

Demonic

Imagination:Style

and

Theme n

French

Romantic

Poetry

begins

his

chapter

on

Baudelaire:

"Baudelaire

has,

by

now,

ceased to

interest

us for the

reasons which

once

appeared

mportant:

is

diabolicalCatholicism s a

familiar,

historicalmodeof

sensibility

which

neithershocks nor has

morbid

appeal

.. ."

[Houston

85].

And

FredricJameson

distinguishes

the modernist

and

the

postmodernist

Baudelaires-both

worthy

of

our

attention-from whathe

calls

the

"second-rate

ost-Romantic

Baudelaire,

he

Baudelaire

A

version

of

this

paper

was

presented

as the

1994

Cassal Lecture

at

the

Universityof

Londonon

October6, 1994. 1 thank heProfessors of French or the honorof this invitation.

86

diacritics 8.3:86-100






of

diabolism

and of

cheap risson,

the

poet

of

blasphemy

and of a

creaking

and

musty

religious

machinery

hat

was no

more

interesting

n the

mid-nineteenth

entury

han t is

today"

[427].

But

Baudelaire

alled his collection "LesFleursdu mal"and

opens

t

with

a

poem

that

declares,

"C'est

le

Diable

qui

tient

le

fils

qui

nous

remuent

it's

the

Devil who

holds

the

strings

that move

us]" [OC

1:

5;

FE

5].

Can this be dismissed as an

irrelevancy-

somethingmistakenly appended

o this

quintessentially

modern

poetry?

That

critics of

such differentorientations hould

agree

n

shunting

aside the

SatanicBaudelaire

uggests

that here s

something

worth

nvestigating

here,

something

disquieting

and

embarrassing,

which

may

not

in

fact be

merely

trivial-which

may

complicate

the

story

of

modernity

that has come to

depend

on

Baudelaire

as its

originator.Perhaps

he

SatanicBaudelaire

would

tell

us

things

about

modernity

we don't want to

know.

Certainly

the

idea of the Devil seems

fundamentally

at

odds with

accounts

of

modernity.

Even

Christianity

tself seems

to

regard

he Devil

as outmoded

mythology,

irrelevant o a modem religion. The introduction o an issue of the Catholic review

Communio

devoted

to

"Satan,

mystery

of

iniquity"

declares,

"we have

trouble

evoking

him. Satan

seems to us to

belong

to another

age,

part

of

the

old

terrorizing magery

of

religions

of fear"

[2].

What

could

be less modern

than Satan-a

scrawny

red man with

horns,

hooves, tail,

and

pitchfork?

Baudelaire,however,

would

have

laughed

at the idea of

progress

and

enlightenment

that lies behind

all

these comments-which

present

themselves as

sophisticated

while

continuing

o

rely

on notionsof intellectual

progress

he

would have

regarded

s

simplistic

and deluded.His

prose

poem

"Le

oueur genereux"

eminds

us,

"n'oublierjamais, uand

vous

entendez

vanter e

progres

des

lumieres,que

la

plus

belle des ruses

du

diable est de

vous

persuader

qu'il

n'existe

pas "

[never

forget,

when

you

hear the

progress

of

enlightenment

praised,

hat

he Devil's finest trick

s

to

persuadeyou

thathe

doesn't

exist]

[OC

1:

327,

my

translation].

Baudelaire eserves

special

scornfor

George

Sand,

who had

complained

in

the

preface

to

one

of

her

novels

that modern

Christiansshouldn't

be

required

o believe in the

Devil,

that

a

trueChristian ould

not

believe in Hell. This

just

shows,

Baudelaire

remarks,

hat he Devil does

not

scorn

"imbeciles"butmakes

good

use

of

them,

to

do

his work for

him. "Elleest

possidge,"

he

writes.

She

is

possessed.

"It'sthe

Devil

who has

persuaded

her

to trust n her

'good

heart'and

'good

sense,"'

in

rejecting

the

idea

of the Devil

[OC

1:

686-87,

my

translation].

Satan appears in few poems of Les Fleurs du mal, but Baudelairegives him a

prominent

place.

Let me mention

the

most

important

moments before

taking

them

up

in

more

detail. The

opening

poem,

"Au

lecteur,"

irmly

declares,

"C'est

le

Diable

qui

tient

les fils

qui

nous

remuent "The

first

poem

of

the section of Les Fleurs

du

mal

entitled

"Fleurs

du

mal" also featuresSatan.

"La

Destruction"

begins:

Sans

cesse

a

mes

cotis

s'agite

le

Dimon;

II

nage

autour

de

moi

comme un air

impalpable.

[OC

1:

111

[The Fiend is at myside withouta rest;

He swirls

around me

like a

subtle

breeze.]

[FE

229]

And afterLes

Fleursdu mal hadbeen condemned oroffenseto

public

morals,

Baudelaire

wrote an

"Epigraphe our

un livre

condamnC"

or the

second edition

of

the collection-

though

n the end he didnotinclude

t.

This

poem

claimsthatreaderswho

haven't

studied

with

Satan,

that

crafty

dean,

should throw

away

this book:

Lecteurpaisible

et

bucolique,

Sobre et

naif

homme

de

bien,

diacritics

/ fall 1998

87






e s t a u r a n

lRestaurant

Pari

s:

Pivr4

•

(H

rkt

•e

t'vrolt

afd

r

I

t-13sh






Jette ce livre

saturnien,

Orgiaque

et

milancolique.

Si

tu

n'as

fait

ta

rhitorique

Chez

Satan,

le

ruse

doyen,

Jette

tu

n

'y

comprendrais

rien

Ou tu

me croirais

hystirique.

[OC

1:

137]

[Reader,

you

of

calm, bucolic,

Artless,

sober

bonhomie,

Get rid

of

this

Saturnianbook

Of

orgies

and

despondency

Just

throw t

out

unless

you've

learned

Yourrhetoric n Satan's school

Youwill

not

understand

a

word,

You'llthink

I

am

hysterical.]

[FE

331]

But what does it mean for

him

to

invoke the Devil in this

way?

Let me

say straight

away

that t

seems

likely

thatBaudelairehimself

did

not

have an

answer o this

question-

"Se

livrer

Satan,

qu'est-ce que

c'est?

[What

s

it to

give

oneself to

Satan?],"

he

asks

in

his Journaux ntimes

[OC

1:

663].

He would have been all

too

happy,

one

suspects,

o

sell

himself to the

Devil,

if

only

he could discover

what t

entailed,

or he

spent

his life

vainly

tryingto sell himselfto editors,publishers,even the Acad6miefranqaise. ndeed,one of

the

prose poems,

"LeJoueur

genereux,"

epresents

ust

such

a Satanic

ransaction,

nd at

the end

of

the

poem

the sinner

prays

not

for

deliverance

romthe infernal

pact

but for

the

Devil to

keep

the

bargain.

"Mon

Dieu

Seigneur,

Mon

Dieu faites

que

le diableme tienne

sa

parole

[My

Lord

God,

my

Lord Make the

Devil

keep

his word to

me ]"

[OC

1:

328].

But the fact that Baudelairedid not

know what it would mean to

give

oneself to the

Devil makes the

question

all the more

important.

What s

the

significance

of

the

Devil

in

Les Fleurs du

mal?

Is

it an

unimportant

it of

mythological

machinery,

or

does the

figure

of the

Devil,

on the

contrary,

bring

orward rucial

problems

and ssues thatwe

ignoreby

dismissing

him? What threatdoes this

figure pose

that

we

need to

set him

aside?And

if

the threat s

primarily

o the idea of Baudelaireas the first

modern

or the

quintessentially

modern

poet,

why

do

we

have

such a stake

in

modernizing

him?

Let

me

emphasize

that I am not

just asking

what it meant

to

write

poems

about

the

Devil

in

mid-nineteenth-century

rance-a

question

hat

certainly

has no

simple

or

single

answer

(Baudelaire

ays

of his

contemporaries,

it's

harder

or

people

of this

century

o

believe

in

the

Devil than o love

him.

Everyone

feels

him

and

no

one believes

in him"

OC

1:

182-83]).

I

am not

just

asking

a historical

question

but

am

asking,

rather,

whatsort of

thinking

can

do

justice

to

the

force and

distinctivenessof these

poems today?

"Au lecteur" ntroduces he Devil. Hereare the familiaropeningstanzas.

La

sottise, I'erreur,

e

piche~,

a

I~sine,

Occupent

nos

esprits

et

travaillent

nos

corps,

Et nous alimentonsnos aimables

remords,

Comme

es

mendiantsnourissent eur

vermine.

Nos

pichis

sont

titus,

nos

repentirs

sont

Ilches;

Nous

nousfaisons payer grassement

nos

aveux,

diacritics / fall 1998

89






Et

nous rentrons

gaiement

dans

le chemin

bourbeux,

Croyant

par

de vils

pleurs

laver

toutes nos taches.

Sur

l'oreiller

du

mal c'est Satan

Trismegiste

Quiberce longuementnotreespritenchante,

Et

le triste

metal de notre

volonti

Est

tout

vaporisepar

ce savant

chimiste.

C'est

le Diable

qui

tient

lesfils qui

nous remuent.

OC

1:

5]

[Folly

and

error,

stinginess

and sin

Possess

our

spirits

and

fatigue

our

flesh.

And

like

a

pet

we

feed

our

tame

remorse

As

beggars

take

to

nourishing

heir lice.

Our sins are

stubborn,

our contrition

ax;

We

offer

lavishly

our vows

offaith

And turnback

gladly

to the

path offilth,

Thinking

mean

tears

will

wash

away

our stains.

On evil's

pillow

lies

the

alchemist

Satan

Thrice-Great,

who lulls our

captive

soul,

And all the richest

metal

of

our

will

Is vaporizedby his hermeticarts.

Truly

he Devil

pulls

on all

our

strings.]

[FE 5]

The

movementof"Au lecteur"

uggests

that

f,

as

the

opening

stanzahas

t,

stupidity,

error

and sin

occupy

us and work us

over,

if

we even nourish

our

remorse

and

proceed

jauntily

down the

muddy

roadof

sin,

it is

because

our

spirit

s

bewitched,

because

Satan

has

vaporized

our

will.

We are

his

puppets.

The

opening

ine of

the

fourth

tanza,

"C'est

le

Diable

qui

tient les

fils

qui

nous

remuent "

comes

with the force of an answer

or

explanation.

The Devil

pulls

the

strings;

ometimes

he makes us

act,

sometimes

prevents

us from

having

the

will to

act

as we would.

The next two stanzas stress

not this diabolical

agency presumed

to

cause

our

weakness

and

wickedness

but

our

resulting complaisance

or

connivance

with

vice:

it

seems

that he Devil

pulling

the

strings

results

n our

finding

repugnant

bjects

attractive,

passing hrough

tinking

darkness

without

horror,

nd

furtivelysnatchingpleasures

rom

which we

try

to

squeeze

every

drop

of

enjoyment.

C'est

le Diable

qui

tient

lesfils qui

nous

remuent.

Aux

objects

rdpugnants

ous trouvons

des

appas;

Chaque our vers l'Enfernous descendonsd'unpas,

Sans

horreur,

a' traversdes

tinebres

qui puent.

Ainsi

qu'un

dibauchi

pauvrequi

baise

et

mange

Le sein

martyrisd

d'une

antique

catin,

Nous volons au

passage

un

plaisir

clandestin

Que

nous

pressons

bien

ort,

commeune vieille

orange.

[Truly

the Devil

pulls

on all our

strings

Inmostrepugnantobjectswefind charms;

90






Each

day

we're one

step

further

into

Hell,

Content

o move across the

stinking

pit.

As a

poor

libertine

will

suck

and kiss

The

sad tormented it

of

some old

whore,

Westeal

a

furtive

pleasure

as

we

pass,

A shrivelled

orange

that

we

squeeze

and

press.]

But

the

seventh

stanza

reopens

the

question

of who is

responsible.

Si le

viol,

le

poison,

le

poignard,

I'incendie,

N'ont

pas

encore

brodi de

leur

plaisants

dessins

Le canevas banal

de nos

piteux

destins,

C'est

que

notre

came,

ilas,

n

'est

pas

assez

hardie.

[If

slaughter,

or

if

arson,

poison, rape

Have

not as

yet

adorned

our

ine designs,

The banal

canvas

of

our

woeful

ates,

It's

only

that

our

spirit

lacks the

nerve.]

If

the

banality

or

triviality

of

our

ives

has

not

been decorated

by

rape,

murder,

rson,

etc.,

it is

because

oursouls

are

not

bold

enough.

There s a shiftof

agency

in

these first wo

lines,

which makes

rape

and murder he

agents

that

may

or

may

not

yet

have

put

their

designs

on ourfate. Thisshiftseemstoreinforce he notionthatwe arehaplesscreatures arrying

out

projects

conceived

elsewhere,

but

if,

as the

last line of this stanza

sententiously

declares,

our lack

of

boldness

is

to

blame,

then what are

we

to

think?

Perhaps

we

are not

the

Devil's

puppets

after

all-only

mediocrities oo

timid

for

real sin

(this

is,

I

believe,

the most common

interpretation

f the

poem).

Or is the

timidity

of our

souls,

rather,

an

example

of what stanzathreecalled

Satan's

vaporization

f our will

andthus an

instance

of his

pulling

the

strings?

The

last threestanzas

shift the

scene,

in

that

trange

way

characteristic f Baudelaire:

from an

external scene

where

the

speaker

figures

as a character

o

an

allegorical

space

bounded

by

the

speaker:

t

is

as

though

Satan's

pulling

the

strings

of

a

hapless

human

puppetgave

rise to this other

space,

which the

poem

calls "la

menagerie

nfAmede nos

vices,"

where

the beasts that are also demons

clamor,

groan,prance,

or

yawn.

Here

is

the rest

of the

poem:

Mais

parmi

les

chacals,

les

pantheres,

les

lices,

Les

singes,

les

scorpions,

les

vautours,

es

serpents,

Les monstres

glapissants,

hurlants,

grognants,

rampants,

Dans

la

menagerie inficme

de nos

vices,

IIen est unplus laid,plus mdchant,plus immonde

Quoiqu

il

ne

pousse

ni

grands gestes

ni

grands

cris,

II

erait

volontiersde

la

terreunddbris

Et dans un bcdillementvalerait le

monde;

C'est l'Ennui -l'oeil

chargi

d'un

pleur

involontaire,

II

rave

d'dchafaudsenfumant

son houka.

Tu le

connais, lecteur,

ce

monstre

dilicat,

-Hypocrite

lecteur,-mon

semblable,-mon

frdre

diacritics / fall

1998

91






[But

there

with all the

jackals,

panthers,

hounds,

The

monkeys,

corpions,

the

vultures,snakes,

Those

howling,

yelping, grunting, crawling

brutes,

The

infamousmenagerie

of

vice,

One

creature

only

is most

oul

and

false

Though

making

no

grand gestures,

nor

great

cries,

He

willingly

would devastate

the

earth

And in one

yawning

swallow all the

world;

He is

Ennui-with

tear-filledeye

he dreams

Of scaffolds,

as he

puffs

his

water-pipe.

Reader,

you

know

this

dainty

monster

too;

-Hypocrite

reader,--fellowman,

my

twin ]

Though

he

Devil

pulls

the

strings

he

is

no

longer

on the scene when

the

poem

turns o this

zoo andto the

ugliest,

meanest,

most

disgusting

of these

monsters,

Ennui,

who

dreams

of

executions

and

wouldn't mind

swallowing

the world in a

yawn.

Is the

presence

of this

monster

n our world

the work of the Devil or not?

One

can't

be sure.The

allegorical

scene of

yawning

Ennui

puffing

his

hookah ike

an oriental

pasha

seems far removed from that of Satan

manipulating

human

puppets.

Is it

that,

with

the

Devil

pulling

the

strings

and

vaporizing

our

will,

we are left

vulnerable o this

finicky

monster? s the

verypromotion

f

ennui

o a

fearsomemonsterof our

nner ife an

example

of the Devil's control?

This

poem

seems,

in its

development,

o

pose

the

problem

of the Devil in a

way

that

I

would call

forceful,

were it not for

the

fact that

critics succeed in

ignoring

t-no doubt

because the

poem

ends not with the Devil but with

Ennui,

which

becomes the focus of

attention.But

the

poem

announces,

as

though

it

were the

explanation

of the human

predicament

described n the first

two

stanzas,

thatthe Devil

holds the

strings

hatmove

us. It then

proceeds

o offer further

escription

of human

omplicity

with

vice in a scenario

which reaches ts climax

with

the worst

monster,

without

elling

us whether

we know

this

fussy

monster

and

odge

him in the

menagerie

of our

vices

because the Devil controlsus

or

whether,

on the

contrary,

as critics have sometimes

suggested,

it is

the

overpowering

presence

of

Ennui

that

gives

the

Devil his

power

to seduce. What

happens

n

the

opening

poem,

I

suggest,

happens

in the collection as a whole:

the

poems

with

an

important

framing

unctionclaim thatthe Devil is

ubiquitous,

but

subsequentpoems

do not

tell

us

whether

he scenes

or

movements

hey

narrate re

examples

of

the Devil's work.

Perhaps

this is what is most

worrying

aboutthe Devil-that

we don't know

what is his

work and

what is not.

The

second

framingpoem

I

mentioned,

"La

Destruction"-the

inaugural oem

of the

section

entitled "Fleursdu

mal"-begins

with

anotherassertionof the Devil's

presence:

Sans cesse

a'

mes cot^ss'agite le Damon;

Il

nage

autourde moi comme un air

impalpable.

Je

l'avale

et le sens

qui

brile

mon

poumon

Et

l'emplit

d'un disir iternel

et

coupable.

[OC

1:

111]

[The

Fiend is

at

my

side without

a

rest;

He

swirls around me

like

a subtle

breeze;

I

swallow

him,

and

burning ills my

breast,

Andcalls me to

desire's

shameful

needs.]

[FE 229]

92






Impalpable

but

omnipresent,

he

Devil

pulls

the

strings,seducing

the

speaker

n the

guise

of

a

woman or

proffering

disgusting

potions

or

drugs.

Parfois

il

prend,

sachant mon

grand

amour

de

l'Art,

Laforme de la plus siduisantedesfemmes,

Et,

sous

de

spdcieuxpretextes

de

cafard,

Accoutume

ma

levre

a

des

philtres

infames.

II

me conduit

ainsi,

loin du

regard

de Dieu

Haletant et

brise

de

fatigue,

au milieu

Des

plaines

de

l'Ennui,

profondes

et

disertes.

[Knowing my

love

of

Art,

he

may

select

A

woman's

orm

-most

perfect,

most

corrupt

And undersanctimonious

pretext

Bring

to

my lips

the

potion of

her

lust.

Thus

does

he

lead

me,

ar

from

sight

of

God,

Broken and

gasping,

out into the broad

And

wasted

plains of

Ennui,

deep

and

still.]

Here the

question

left

open

in

"Au lecteur"seems to receive a

definite answer.

If the

speaker

s

in

the

plains

of

Ennui,

t is becausethe Devil

leads

him

there,

n this

way

(ainsi):

by always stirringat his side, by filling himwithculpabledesires,by takingthe form of

the most seductive

of

women and

by accustoming

him to

infamous

potions.

Two

peculiar

things

are worth

noting

here.

First,

the

scenario

hintedat in

"Au lecteur"

and affirmed

n

"La

Destruction"

differs fromtraditional ales

of

Satan,

where

the

Devil doesn't lead

you

into

ennui

but

out

of

it,

by providing

pecialpowers,

knowledge,

or

sensual

opportunities

(in

exchange

for

your

soul).

In

Baudelaire,

hough,

ennui is not the

condition

of or

point

of

departure

or the Devil's

work

but

its

result.This

is

singular

and distinctive.

Second,

the

poem

ends

with

an

allegorical

event

considerably

more

enigmatic

than Ennui's

dreaming

of

scaffolds

in

"Au

ecteur."Here

the

Devil leads the

speaker

nto the

plains

of

Ennui:

II

me conduit

ainsi,

loin du

regard

de

Dieu,

Haletant et brise

defatigue,

au milieu

Des

plaines

de

l'Ennui,

profondes

et disertes.

Etjette

dans

mes

yeux

pleins

de

confusion

Des

vetements

souilles,

des

blessures

ouvertes,

Et

l'appareil sanglant

de

la

Destruction

[Then throwsbefore mystaringeyes somegowns

And

bloody

garments

stained

by

open

wounds,

And

dripping

engines of

Destruction's

will ]

Thecombination

n

these

closing

lines of the sonnet

of

strangely

unresonant bstraction

("l'appareil anglant

de

la

destruction")

nd unlocated

specificity

("v~tements

ouillts"

and"blessures

ouvertes")

makes

it difficult to

grasp

what the Devil

might

be

throwing

n

his

face,

and this

very difficulty

seemsto raisethe

possibility

that

any

scenarioelsewhere

in Baudelaire's

poems involving

such

things

as

wounds, destruction,

blood,

or

soiled

clothescan be seenastheDevil's work.Onemight maginethatsince the Devil conducts

diacritics / fall 1998 93






me

"ainsi,"

n

the

guise

of

a

woman,

what he Devil as woman hrows

n

the

speaker'

face

is

menstruation,

s

sign

of the monstrousness f feminine

sexuality.

Butthis

interpretation

may

fail to

live

up

to the curious

"appareil

anglant

de

la

Destruction,"which,

unresonant

though

t

may

be,

neverthelesshas a

prima acie

importance

ince

it

provides

or

echoes

the title of the

poem.

The

difficulty

of

grasping

whatthe Devil is about

here,

I'm

tempted

to

conclude-here at the

point

where a

poem

of

Les Fleurs

du

mal seems most

explicitly

to tell

us

what

t is

thatthe Devil

does-heightens

the

question

of the

extent

to

which

the

Devil is

at

work

in

the

adventures

and obsessions of

the

speakers

of

these

poems.

But

there s

one

suggestion

that

needs

to be

pursued

n

the

strange ndings

of

the

two

poems

cited

so

far.The

puzzling "appareil anglant

de la

destruction"

ecalls

Ennui,

who

"rave

d'6chafauds."

n one case

the Devil leads the

speaker

nto

the

plains

of

Ennui

and

throwswhat

might

well be

the

guillotine

before his

eyes.

In

the

other

he Devil leaves us

threatened

by

Ennui,

who

dreams

of

executions

and would swallow the

whole world

in

a

yawn. Together

he

poems

seem to

carry

he

suggestion

hat he

Devil is behindan ennui

linked withrevolutionary xecutions.

Associating

Satan with the

French

Revolution

was

a

right-wing commonplace.

Baudelaire's

maitre

a

penser, Joseph

de

Maistre,

had

written,

"TheFrenchRevolution

has

a

Sataniccharacter hat

distinguishes

t

from

everything

we have

seen and

perhaps

rom

everything

that we shall

see"

[55].

Baudelaire

was

certainly

touched

as well

by

the

nineteenth-century

radition

of

revolutionary

Satanism,

which also identifiedSatan

with

those

in

revolt

againstauthority.

As

Eugen

Weber

describes

it,

If,

for

the masters

of

the

Restoration,

reedom

was

diabolical,

why

shouldn't

liberals take the devil's side? ... If for itsenemies,theFrenchRevolutionwas

the work

of

Satan,

the

partisans

of

the

Revolution

ought

to be

grateful

to

him.

If

the

enemies

of

the Revolutionhad God on their

side,

if

the

oppressors

of

the

people

...

reigned

by

His

grace,

the liberaland the

Romantic

often

one and the

same

person) might very

well wish

to

follow

Satan into his exile

and

reject

a

heaven that was

too

reactionary

and too

bourgeois (depending

on

the

current

regime)

to

attract them.

[

1

1-12]

Baudelaire's"Abel

et

Cain,"

rom the section

of Les

Fleurs

du

mal titled

"Revolte,"

was

written

during

his

period

of

revolutionary

enthusiasm

n

1848 and concludes with

the

injunction

or

possibly description

n the

present

ense),

Race

de

Cain,

au

ciel

monte,

Et

sur

la

terrejette

Dieu.

[OC

1:

123]

[Race

of

Cain,

assault

the

skies

And

drag

him

earthward-bring

down

God ]

[FE 269]

But

in

general

t is

striking-given

Baudelaire's

nterest n Satan-how

little he

partici-

pates in the reversalsof romantic Satanismthatmakethe Devil a hero,praisedfor his

revolt

against

an

oppressive

despot.

Baudelaire's

only

poem

that

places

Satan

n

the

title,

"LesLitaniesde

Satan,"

nvokes

him

in

liturgical

accents,

n the formof

supplication

and

response,

and

substitutes

Satanfor

Mary

n

the

response

or

refrain,

"O

Satan,

prends

piti6

de

ma

longue

misbre

Satan,

ake

pity

on

my misery]"

[OC

1:

123;

FE

269].

This

poem

addressesSatanasone

who,

responsible

or

evil,

may

have

pity

for

humans

andeven offer

solace to human

ufferers,

but solaceof akindwhose

value

s,

to

say

the

least,

ambiguous.

Satan,

t is

said,

engendershope

(which

may

be

a

further llusion and source of

torture);

he

teaches

courage

n

adversity

a

good

thing,

but

which does not

overcome

adversity);

heknows wheremetalsand

precious

stonesarehidden

underground

which

nspiresgreed

94






and

strife);

he

gives

men

gunpowder;

he

inspires

perversions

which

bring

solace

(such

as

the

"culte

de

la

plaie

et des

guenilles

[the

ove

of

rags,

the cult of

woundsand

pain]"),

and

so on.

This Satanic

poem

is

remarkable, think,

or

the

modesty

of its claims

for

the

figure

it

addresses

tructurally

s a

kindof God:

Satan s not a

heroic

rebel

but

a

figure

who offers

minor

consolations to social

outcasts.

Though

Baudelaire

occasionally grants

Satan the

beauty

and

grandeur

of a fallen

archangel-as

when he

calls Milton's Satanthe model

of

virile

beauty

[OC

1:

658]

or

speaks,

in

"L'irr6m6diable,"

f

"la conscience dans le Mal"

as

a

"flambeau

des

graces

sataniques"

nd

"soulagement

t

gloire uniques"

"torch

of

Satanical

graces"

anda

"glory

in

consolation")

he

does

not seek to

reverse

values

and rehabilitate

Satan.

Indeed,

a

passage

of

romantic

Satanism from

Balzac's

Splendeurs

et miseres des

courtisanes,

a

passage

sometimes

thought

o contain the

germ

of

Baudelaire'

title,

Les

Fleurs

du mal,

will

help

to measure

Baudelaire'sdistance from

the

conceptions

of his

contemporaries.

In

Splendeurs

et

miseres,

Lucien

de

Rubempr6

ays

to

Vautrin

CarlosHerrera):

I1

y

a

la

postiriti

de Cain et

celle

d'Abel,

comme

vous

disiez

quelquefois.

Cain,

dans le

grand

dramede

I'Humanite,

'est

l'opposition.

Vous

descendez

d'Adam

par

cette

ligne

en

qui

le diable a continue

de

souffler

le

feu

dont

la

premiere

itincelle avait

tijetie

sur

ve.

Parmi es dimons de

cettefiliation

l

s'en

trouve,

de

temps

en

temps,

de

terribles,

a

organisations

vastes,

qui

rdsument

outes

les

forces

humaines,

et

qui

ressemblent a

esfivreux

animaux

du disert

dont

a

vie

exige

les

espaces

immenses

qu'ils y

trouvent.

Ces

gens-li

sont

dangereux

comme

des

lions le seraient en

pleine

Normandie: l

leurfaut

une

pcature,

ls

divorent

les

hommes

vulgaires

et broutent

es

&cus

des niais.

... QuandDieu

le

veut,

ces

etres

mystirieux

sont

Moi'se,

Atilla,

Charlemagne,

Mahomet,

ou

Napoleon;

mais,

quand

ls

laissent

rouiller

aufond

de

l'ocean

d'une

generation

ces instruments

gigantesques,

ils

ne

sont

plus que

Pugatcheff,

Robespierre,

Louvel,

et

l'Abbi

Carlos

Herrera. Douds

d'un immense

pouvoir

sur

les

ames

tendres,

ils les attirentet les broient.

..

C'est

la

plante

vinedneuse ux

riches

couleurs

quifascine

les

enfants

dans

les

bois. C'est

la

po'sie

du

mal.

[473-74]

[There

is

Cain's

posterity

and

that

ofAbel,

as

you

sometimes

said.

In

the

great

drama

ofhumanity,

Cain

is

the

opposition.

You

descendfrom

Adam

by

this

line,

into whom hedevil has continued o breathe he ire whose irst

spark

was

given

to Eve.

Among

the demons

of

this

lineage,

there

have

been,

from

time to

time,

those who were terrible

indeed,

whose vast

structures

encapsulate

all human

forces

and

who resemble

hosefeverish

animals

of

the

desert whose

ife

demands

the immense

paces

they

ind

there.Such

people

are

as

dangerous

n

society

as

lions would

be in the heart

ofNormandy: heyneedfodder;

they

devourordinary

menand

graze

on

the coin

of

the

unwary....

WhenGod so

wills,

these

mysterious

beings

are

Moses,Atilla,

Charlemagne,

Mohammed,

rNapoleon;

butwhen he

allow their

gigantic capacities

to

rustat

the bottom

of

the

ocean

of

a

generation,

thentheybecomePugatcheff,Robespierre,Louvel,and Abbe" arlosHerrera.

Endowed with immense

power

over

tender

souls,

they

attract

them

and

crush

them

....

It's

splendid.

It's

beautiful

of

itskind.It's the

richly

colored

poisonous

plant

that

fascinates

children in the woods. It's

the

poetry of

evil.]

[my

translation]

In

romanticSatanism

we have Sataniccharacters-either

Satanhimself

made a character

in

a substantial

narrative

as

in

Hugo

and

Vigny)

or other

charactersdentifiedas Satanic

surrogates,

as in

Byron

or

herein Balzac.

Baudelaire,however,

does not make Satana

character

n

a narrative-even

in "Les

litanies

de Satan"he

is an addresseewith

certain

diacritics

/ fall

1998

95






sympathies

and achievementsbut not

a

figure

in a

story

of

reversal.

Baudelaire,

unlike

many

of

his immediate

precursors,

does

not

participate

n

the rehabilitation f

the Devil

thatstructures uch

major

efforts

as

Vigny's

"Eloa,"

Lamartine' La chuted'un

ange

and,

eventually,

Hugo's Lafin

de

Satan. The

historian

ErnestRenanwrote

n

1855,

two

years

before the

publication

of

Les Fleurs du

mal,"[o]f

all the

hitherto

accursed

beings

whom

the

toleranceof our

century

has relieved

of their

curse,

Satan s

doubtless

he one

who

has

gained

the most from the

progress

of

enlightenment

and

of

universal

civilization"

[231;

my

translation].

But Baudelaire

was

not

an

agent

of the

progress

of

enlightenment.

Unrehabilitated,

he Devil

takes

his

importance

n

Les Fleurs du mal

from

the

way

Baudelaire

puts

him into the

poems

that rameand

present

he

book,

such as "Au

ecteur,"

the

openingpoem

of the

book,

"La

Destruction,"

he

opening

poem

of the title

section,

and

the

epigraphprojected

or

the second

edition.

Another

poem

where Satan is

explicitly

mentioned,

"L'irr6m6diable,"

rom

the end

of

the

section

"Spleen

et

l'id6al,"

approaches

the

question

of what he Devil controls

n

another

way.

(Note,

incidentally,

he

appearance

of le diable in the title

"L'irr6m6diable.")

he first seven stanzasof the

poem present

a

series of

images

of human

oppression

and

entrapment-a

being

fallen

into

"un

Styx

bourbeux

et

plomb6,"

a

"malheureux"

eeking vainly

to

flee "un ieu

plein

de

reptiles,"

and

so

on-images

that,

the

poem

suggests,

illustrateSatan's effectiveness:

-Emblemes

nets,

tableau

parfait

D'une

fortune

irrimicdiable,

Qui

donnea

penser que

le Diable

Fait

toujours

bien tout

ce

qu'ilfait

[OC

1:

80]

[Pure

emblems,

a

perfect

tableau

Of

an irremediable

ortune,

Whichmakes us

think hat the Devil

Does

well what he chooses

to

do ]

[FE

161]

But

the

phrase

"donne

a

penser"

eaves

open

the

possibility

that we

may

be mistaken.

These

images

make one

think hat the Devil

always

does

his

work

well,

but

perhaps

he

Devil isn't

really

responsible

for these disastersand

entrapments

fter

all-perhaps,

for

example,

we are misled

by

the

rhyme

into

seeing

the Devil

in

any

fate deemed

irrdmidiable.

Since

"L'irr6m6diable"

mmediatelyproceeds

n

the next stanza

to

speak

of the

Tite-ca-tete

ombre et

limpide

Qu'un

coeur

devenu son miroir

[It's

a

face-to-face

sombre

and clear

Whena heart

gives

its own

image

back ]

it is possiblethat he earlier magesshow not the Devil's efficacyandubiquitybutrather

the heart's

power

of

projection-displaying

what

s

generated

when,

as

in

the

production

of the

literary

works from which

these

images

or

emblemsare

drawn,

consciousness

imaginatively

reflects on itself. On the other

hand,

it could be that

this somber

self-

reflection

s another

example

of

the Devil's

work:

he

pulls

the

strings

of

self-reflexivity

too,

making

hearts

become

their

own

mirrors,

to

disastrous effect.

Perhaps

no

self-

scrutiny

would occur

in an

unfallen

world

or

if the Devil

hadn't ed us into the

plains

of

Ennui.

Here, too,

the

appearance

n the

poem

of the

figure

of the Devil seems

to

give

rise

to

this

problem:

s he

responsible?

What s most

diabolicalabout he

Devil,

I

am

tempted

to conclude,is that we can neverbe sure when he is at work.

96






The

foregrounding

of Satan

in

the

framing poems,

and

a few

others,

such

as

"L'irremediable,"

oses

the

question

of whetherhe is

not

responsible

or

what

s

described

in the

poems

within the

volume

where

he

may

make no

obvious

appearance.

Are

we

observing

the

effects

of

Satanic

controlor his stimulationof

perverse

appetites,

or

is

there

some otherexplanation?Forexample,in "Lessept vieillards,"a poemfrom "Tableaux

parisiens,"

he

speaker

encounters

a

sinister old

man with an

evil

glitter

in his

eye,

who

staggers

along,

Comme

s'il

"crasait

des morts sous

ses

savates,

Hostile

a'

'univers

plutbt

qu'indiffrrent.

OC

1:

88]

[As

if

his old

shoes

trampled

on the

dead

In

hatred,

not

indifference

o

life.]

[FE

179]

This sinister

figure

seems to

multiply

himself-seven times:

Son

pareil

le

suivait:

barbe, oeil, dos, bd~ton,

oques,

Nul

trait ne

distinguait,

du

meme

enfer

venu,

Ce

jumeau

centenaire,

et

ces

spectres

baroques

Marchaient

du

mime

pas

vers

un but

inconnu.

[His

double

ollowed:

beard,

eye,

back, stick,

rags,

No

separate

traits,

and come

rom

the same hell.

This second ancientman,baroque,grotesque,

Trod with the same

step

towards their

unknown

goal.

]

The

speaker

suspects

a

plot:

A

quel

complot inftimeetais-je

donc

en butte

...

?

Is this

a

satanic

plot?

Or

could

it

be mere

chance that

wickedly

humiliateshim

by

making

him

suspect

a

plot?

A

quel

complot inftime tais-je

donc en

butte,

Ou

quel

mdchant

hasard ainsi

m'humiliait?

Carje comptais sept

fois,

de minuteen

minute,

Ce sinistre viellard

qui

se

multipliait

[To

what

conspiracy

was

I

exposed?

Whatwicked

chance humiliatedme?

For

one

by

one I

countedseven times

Multiplesof

this sinister old

man.]

This

poem,

like

others,

seems to

prevent

one from

making

a

Satanic

plot

or Satanic

influence an

explanation

on which

one could

rely.

The

Devil, then,

is the name of a

problem.

Sometimes-in

Baudelaire's

prose

notes

particularly-we may

seem to be

confronting

a version

of thetraditional

problem

of the

Devil's

disguises. Writing

of Les liaisons

dangereuses,

Baudelaire

peaks

of "Valmont

Satan"and

of

Mme

de

Merteuil

as "une

Eve

satanique."Apparently,

Satan

may

take the

form of or work

through

manifest

villains,

such as

they,

but these are

eighteenth-century

Satans,

and

in

the nineteenth

century,

Baudelaire

claims,

diacritics

/

fall

1998 97






l'nergie

du

mal a baissed.-Et

la

niaiserie

a

pris

la

place

de

l'esprit....

En

realite,

le satanisme a

gagned.

atan

s'estfait ingenu [manifestinghimself for

instance,

n

George

Sand].

Le

mal

se connaissant

'tait

moins

affreux

etplus

pres

de

la

gue'risonque

le mal

s'ignorant. George

Sand

infrrieure

ai

de Sade.

[the

energy of evil has shrunk.Andsappinesshas replacedbrilliance .... Infact,

Satanismhas won out. Satan has made

himself

he sweet

nnocent... Evil

which

knows

tselfwas

less horribleand nearercure thanevil

ignorant

ofitself George

Sand

inferior

to

Sade.] [OC

2:

68,

my

translation]

In

the

eighteenth

century,

he

continues,

"on

se damnait

moins

betement."

But

if

the Devil

can

manifest himself as

easily

in

George

Sand as in Melmoth

or

Madame

de

Merteuil,

or

Gilles de

Rais,

then

he has

become so

ubiquitous

as

to

be

a

differentsort

of

figure-one

which

represents

above

all

the

possibility

that

anything

or

anyone,however innocentthey may appear,can work for ill. As the suprememasterof

ruse and

deceit,

the

Devil incarnates he

ubiquity

of

deception,evil--or,

to

put

it in

other

terms,

the

speculativepossibility

of

dialectic,

in

which what ooks beneficial

at

one

level

may

prove

at another o

be horribleand

oppressive.

One can never

tell where the

Devil

is at

work.

"I1

nage

autourde moi comme

un

air

impalpable,"

ays

"La

Destruction,"

dissolved intothe

very

air we

breathe.Sometimeshe takes

the formof "la

plus

s6duisante

des

femmes."

So

there

is

always

a

question,

it

seems,

whether

a

woman is

a Satanic

manifestation.

"De Satan

ou

de

Dieu,

qu'importe?"

r

"Ange

ou

Demon,

qu'importe?"

exclaim Baudelaire'snarrators

n

moments

of

great

desperation

echoing Hugo's apos-

trophe

o

Napoleon:

"Tu

domines

notre

age. Ange

ou

demon,

qu' mporte?

You

dominate

our

age.

Angel

ordemon,whatmatter?]")But the factthatthis

"qu'importe?"

omesas

the

climax

of

agonized

reflection shows that

usually

Baudelairian

peakers

care

very

much

whether

hey

are

dealing

with

the

Devil,

though they

can never know for sure.

If

what

is

most

diabolicalabout he Devil

is

the

difficulty

of

deciding

whetherhe

is

at work

in

a

particular

cene or

situation,

hen

the

figure

of the Devil

poses

the

generalquestion

of whether here s

meaning

o

the scenarios

n

which

we

are

caught

up

or

misfortunes hat

befall

us

or whether

they

are

simply

accidents. Can we

escape

our sense that there are

malignant

orces

that

operate ndependently

of human

ntentions

or

that

the world often

works

against

us?

"Everyone eels

the Devil and no

one believes

in

him,"

wrote

Baudelaire n a projectedprefaceto Les Fleursdumal [OC 1: 182-83].

But

if

the

Devil is the name of a

force that works

on

us

against

our

will-if,

as

Baudelaire

ays

in "Au

lecteur,"

"le

riche metal

de

notre

volont6

Est tout

vaporis6

par

ce savant

chimiste"-isn't

he

just

a

personification

of

aspects

of

the Unconscious

or

the

Id,

of forces

that

make

us

do

whatourconscious

selves

mightreject?

To

make Baudelaire

modern

can't

we

just

cross out

Devil andwrite in

Unconscious

or,

better,

Death

Drive,

or

RepetitionCompulsion?

There

s

something

o

be said for

this

view,

though

one

would have to

work out the

analogy

and

the

substitution

more

precisely.

Baudelaire,

hough,

had

anticipated

uch

a

possibility

and

in his

prose poem

"Le mauvais

vitrier"he

speaks

of

"cette

humeur,

hysterique

selon les

m6decins,

satanique

elon

ceux

qui pensent

un

peu

mieux

que

les

medecins,

qui

nous

pousse

sans

r6sistence

vers une foule

d'actions

dangereuses

ou

inconvenantes"

that

conditiontermed

hystericalby

doctorsand Satanical

by

those

who

think rather

more

clearly

than

doctors,

which

pushes

us

unresisting

owards

a

host

of

dangerous

or unsuitable

actions] [OC

1:

286].

The Satanical

hypothesis

is clearer

thinking,

one

surmises,

because it adduces

not

an

individualdisorder

but

impersonal

structures nd forces.

When

GustaveFlaubert

objected

o

Baudelaire hathe insistedtoo

muchon

l'Esprit

du

Mal,

Baudelaire

replied,

98






de tout

temps j'ai

iti obsedd

par l'impossibiliti

de

me

rendre

compte

de

certaines actions ou

pensees

soudaines

de

l'homme

sans

l'hypothese

de

l'intervention

d'une

orce

michante extirieure

ac

ui.

-Voili un

gros

aveu

dont

tout le

19e

siecle

conjure

ne

mefera pas

rougir

[I

have

always

been

obsessed

by

the

impossibilityof accounting or

some

of

man's

sudden actions or

thoughts

without

he

hypothesis

of

the

intervention

of

an

evilforce

outside

him-Here's

a scandalous

avowalfor

whichthe whole

nineteenth

entury

rangedagainst

me

won't make me

blush]

[Correspondance

2:

53,

my

translation].

Christian

heology

introduces

he Devil to

account

for

the

presence

of evil

in

the

world. If

God

is not to be

held

responsible

or

evil,

there

must

be

another

reaturewhose

free choice

in

deviating

rom

good

introduced

vil.

The

Devil, thus,

s not a

symbol

of evil

but

an

agent

or

personification

whose

ability

to act

is

essential.Justas

God

is

not

a

symbol

of

good

but,

if

he

is

anything,

an

agent,

a

creator,

or

controller,

o

the Devil

is

the name

for evil agency-evil as an active force, not evil as the absence of God, as modern

theologians

are wont to

suggest.

Les

Fleurs

du

mal makes

the

Devil an

actor,

along

with

other

unexpected

agents,

such as

Prostitution,

which

lights

up

in

the

streets,

Anguish,

which

plants

ts

black

flag

in

my

skull,

Ennui,

who

puffs

on

his hookahanddreams

of the

gallows.

To

dismiss Satan as

just

a

"personification"

f

evil,

though,

and thus

a

fiction,

requires

remarkable

onfidence aboutwhat can and what

cannot

act,

about what forces

there are at

work

n

the

universe.Behind the

wish

to dismiss him

as

personification

may

lie the

wishful

presumption

hat

only

human individuals

can

act,

that

they

control

the

world and

thatthereare no other

agents;

but the world would

be

a

very

different

place

if

this were true.Much of its character,ts difficulty,its mystery,comes fromthe effects

produced by

actions

of other sorts

of

agents,

which our

grammarsmay

or

may

not

personify:

history,

classes,

capital,

freedom,

public opinion-forces

not

graspable

at

the

level

of the

empirical

actions

of

individualsbut which

seem to

control

the

world

and

give

events

meaningful

and often

oppressive

structures.

Baudelaire's

poems,

in which

Anguish,

Autumn,

Beauty,

Ennui,

Hope,

Hate,

and

others

do

their

work,

pose

questions

about

the constituentsand boundariesof

persons,

about

the forces

that act

in

the

world,

and about

whether his level of

allegorical

action

does

not

in fact best

capture

he realities of

body, spirit,

and

history.

This

is,

finally,

a

question

about

the sort

of

rhetoric best suited

to

explore

our

condition;

Baudelaire's

practice

shows a commitment

to

hyperbolic

scenarios

involving

diverse and unusual

actors.

In his

essay

on Theodorede

Banville,

Baudelaire

peaks

of

hyperbole

and

apostrophe

as

the

forms

of

language

not

only

most

agreeable

butalso most

necessary

o

lyric,

and

goes

on to maintain

hat

S'art

modernea

une

tendance

essentiellementdimoniaque.

Et

il

semble

que

cette

part

infernale

de

l'homme,

que

I

'homme

rend

plaisir

a

s

'expliquer

lui-me^me,

augmente

ournellement,

comme si le

Diable

s'amusait

ac

a

grossir

par

des

procMdis rtificiels,

ac

'instardes engraisseurs,empaitant atiemmente genre

humain

dans

ses basses-cours

pour

se

preparer

une nourriture

lus

succulente

[modern

art has an

essentially

demonic

tendency.

And it seems to me that this

infernalpart

of

man,

whichman takes

pleasure

in

explicating

o

himself

grows

larger daily,

as

if

the Devil were

amusing

himself by fattening

it

through

artificial

means,

inspiredbyforcefeeders,

patiently

stuffing

humankind n his

farmyards,

to

prepare

more succulent

food for himself].

[OC

2:

168,

my

translation]

diacritics

/ fall 1998

99






This

hyperbolic

quation

of the modemwith the diabolicaldoes not

correspond

t

all

with

the critical

reception

of

Baudelaire,

which has left

behind

the

gothic

Baudelaire so

splendidly

encapsulated

n

this

image

of the Devil

practicing

a

gavage satanique,

ike the

producers

of foie

gras.

Baudelairehere

gives

us,

and

claims as

modern,

an

allegorical

scenario

with

a

highly original

account

of the forces behind a

human

activity

that

is

increasingly

swollen

with

evil. Such

hyperbolic

accounts

may

be well suited to

a

time

when,

as Baudelaire

ays, everyone

feels the Devil

but no one believes

in him.

Exploring

and

channeling

his

feeling

without

demanding

belief,

such

allegories

posit

forces

and

meanings

that

might

be at

work

in

the infernal

accumulations

we

characteristically

eel

but seem

unable o control

in

what

we

persuade

ourselves

s the modernworld.

If

one

of

the tasks

of

French Studies

is

to

explicate

the sense of a

modern

world

and

modern

experience emanating

from

Paris,

then Baudelaire's

satanic

verses should

lie

upon

its

path,requiring ngagement

and

explanation.

WORKS CITED

Balzac,

Honor6de.

Splendeurs

t

miseres

des

courtisanes.Ed.A.

Adam.Paris:

Gallimard,

1987.

Baudelaire,

Charles.

Correspondance.

Ed.

ClaudePichois et Jean

Ziegler.

2 vols. Paris:

Gallimard,

1973.

-

.

The Flowers

of

Evil.

Trans.

James

McGowan. Oxford World Classics dual-

language

ed. Oxford:Oxford

UP,

1993.

[FE]

-

.

Oeuvres

completes.

Ed.

Claude Pichois.

2

vols. Paris:

Gallimard,

1975.

[OC]

Berman,Marshall.All ThatIs SolidMelts into Air: TheExperienceof Modernity.New

York:

Simon and

Schuster,

1982.

Benjamin,

Walter. Charles Baudelaire: A

Lyric

Poet in the

Era

of

High Capitalism.

London:

Verso,

1973.

Bersani,

Leo.

Baudelaire

and

Freud.

Berkeley:

U

of

California

P,

1977.

de

Maistre,

Joseph.

Considerations

ur

la

France.

Vol. I

of Oeuvres

completes.

Lyon-

Paris:

Vitte et

Perrussel,

1884.

de

Man,

Paul.

"Anthropomorphism

nd

Trope

in

the

Lyric."

The Rhetoric

of

Romanti-

cism. New York:

Columbia,

1983.

Eliot,

T.

S. "Baudelaire." elected

Essays.

London:

Faber,

1951:

419-30.

Houston,

JohnPorter.The Demonic

Imagination:Style

and

Theme

n FrenchRomantic

Poetry.

Baton

Rouge:

LousianaState

UP,

1969.

Jameson,

Fredric.

"Baudelaireas

Modernistand

Postmodernist:The Dissolution of the

Referent

and

the Artificial 'Sublime."'

Lyric

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Beyond

New

Criticism.

Ed.

Chaviva

Hosek and

PatriciaParker. thaca:

Cornell

UP,

1985.

Renan,

Ernest.

"La

tentation

du

Christ."

L'Artiste

27

May

1855: 47-50.

Rosenberg,

Harold.

The

Tradition

of

the New. New

York:

Horizon,

1959.

Satan:

Myst&re

'iniquitd.

Communio .3

(1979).

Thibaudet,

Albert.

"Baudelaire,"

nte'rieurs.

aris:

Plon,

1924.

1-61.

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100

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