"Les Fleurs du Mal, once the most infamous book of poems in French literature, has become the most famous and the most admired, owing its landmark status to the sheer aesthetic quality of its verses rather than to its judicial condemnation on its first publication in 1857. In this volume, Professor Leakey provides a comprehensive guide to the understanding and appreciation of Les Fleurs du Mal, offering fresh insights into its composition, themes and style, setting it in its historical context, and devoting a whole chapter to Baudelaire's crowning poetic achievement, Le Cygne. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.