you that he does not exist."


Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821 - 1867) was a French poet, translator and literary and art critic who is best known for his controversial collection of poems 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (1857; 'The Flowers of Evil'). His poems exhibit a mastery of rhythm and rhyme that were based on the Frenchman’s observations of real life. ‘La Chevelure’ (‘The Head of Hair’), ‘Le Voyage’ (‘The Trip’) and ‘Le Cygne’ (‘The Swan’) are widely acknowledged as poetic masterpieces. Themes of sex, death, lesbianism, metamorphosis, industrialisation, lost innocence and alcohol, caused controversy at the time but also garnered Baudelaire many fans, and his original style has influenced a generation of poets including Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé. Baudelaire is also responsible for many famous quotes such as, ‘The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist’, ‘Be always drunken. Nothing else matters...’ and ‘Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.’