Poe x Baudelaire

The warped worlds Edgar Allan Poe builds and the twisted characters he traps within them make these three tales not only thrillers, but also marvels of imagination. Printed here with French translations by Charles Baudelaire in parallel text, and illuminated by the deliciously sinister art of Ben Jones, this edition highlights the richness of Poe’s words and their invitation to new approaches and reinterpretation.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) never met, but their writing and the issues at stake in their poetry and prose are tightly intertwined. Working from 1852 until 1865 Baudelaire, the French modernist poet, published a near-complete translation of Poe’s tales, bringing him such renown in France that T.S. Eliot remarked, “we should be prepared to entertain the possibility that these Frenchmen have seen something in Poe that English-speaking readers have missed.” Poe, vastly underappreciated in his lifetime, lived in both poverty and infamy. He served as the editor of publications including Gentleman’s Magazine, Graham’s, and the Broadway Journal, all magazines where the public first read the works in this collection. With this edition, we aim to place attention on seeking out that “something” in Poe’s work that captivated Baudelaire and his milieu.

Contents: One sewn paperback book; three postcards; three cartes de visite; packaged in a presentation slipcase