Charles Baudelaire

Comment ne pas payer ses dettes

Lettres au bord de l’épuisement financier

How Not to Pay Your Debts

Letters on the Verge of Financial Exhaustion

April 22, 2021

Epistolary

64 pages

100 × 165 mm

7,95 €

978-8-8313-1263-9

“Les Plis – les livres prêts-à-expédier” collection

Charles Baudelaire, Comment ne pas payer ses dettes

Why, having such a right and clear idea of duty and usefulness, do I always do the opposite?

Living resolutely on the brink of the abyss, trailed by misery, Charles Baudelaire knew how to transform adversity into an inferno of art and thought. From the back room of an inn or an icy makeshift dwelling, the master of symbolists recounts in these letters his financial woes. Cursed by those who lent him money, petrified with pride and anger, the poet overcame all crises, managing to embody the myth of a bohemian life and writing.

The author

Brilliant by his lucidity, his critical intelligence and his sense of beauty, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was in the 19th century the precursor of poetic modernity. In prey to spleen, tormented by misery and illness, the writer never ceased to face sentimental disappointments, the incomprehension of his family and the persecution of his creditors. Seeking comfort from his mother—an ambivalent presence, both harsh and generous—or the understanding of his guardian, Baudelaire expressed his anger at seeing his vocation as an artist and writer hampered by difficulties, the horror of dishonor, constant terror, without ever giving up his dignity. Summoned by duty—paying his debts, conquering fame, righting wrongs—, the poet found his salvation in work, dreaming of finding the energy and time necessary to accomplish his work.

The edition

Translation of the pageantry by Delphine Ménage.

Letters chosen and presented by Lorenzo Flabbi.

Strong points

The letters where Baudelaire lays bare his heart and his bank account.

The poet’s determination in the face of daily advances.

The first intermittent of the poetic spectacle.