This authoritative edition of Baudelaire’s Complete Verse contains Les Fleurs du mal (1861), the first great modern work of poetry and one of the few books of poems to become an international bestseller, with Nouvelles Fleurs du mal (1868), Les Épaves (1866) and all of Baudelaire’s other poetry in verse. The French text is given at the head of the page, while Francis Scarfe’s scrupulous and inventive prose translations appear at the foot, making this an ideal edition both for the advanced student and the general reader wishing to tackle the French original with a reliable prose prompt to hand.

The companion volume, The Poems in Prose, contains Baudelaire’s prose poems (Petits Poèmes en prose, 1869) and the short novel La Fanfarlo (1847), an ‘extravaganza’ written in his early twenties.