La Fanfarlo

Fülszöveg

The French poet Charles Baudelaire is perhaps most famous for his Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil) and other poems. In 1847, however, he published his only novella, La Fanfarlo, which was a reflection of his bizarre relationship with his mistress, Jeanne Duval, and a scathing indictment of himself, personified in the novella as the character Samuel Cramer. Baudelaire parodies himself as "a great idler, an ambitious failure, and a notorious wretch," one ""whose powers of imagination were as vast as its singularity and laziness were absolute." Samuel Cramer represented for Baudelaire the man he himself was most afraid of becoming: the foolish Romantic, the dandy enslaved by his own twisted passions, the man of potential brilliance who squanders his talent through his lack of self-discipline.
Baudelaire sacrificed both art and financial security for the dancer Jeanne Duval, the model for La Fanfarlo. Hopelessly committed to keeping her in the luxury she demands, the poet compromises... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The French poet Charles Baudelaire is perhaps most famous for his Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil) and other poems. In 1847, however, he published his only novella, La Fanfarlo, which was a reflection of his bizarre relationship with his mistress, Jeanne Duval, and a scathing indictment of himself, personified in the novella as the character Samuel Cramer. Baudelaire parodies himself as "a great idler, an ambitious failure, and a notorious wretch," one ""whose powers of imagination were as vast as its singularity and laziness were absolute." Samuel Cramer represented for Baudelaire the man he himself was most afraid of becoming: the foolish Romantic, the dandy enslaved by his own twisted passions, the man of potential brilliance who squanders his talent through his lack of self-discipline.
Baudelaire sacrificed both art and financial security for the dancer Jeanne Duval, the model for La Fanfarlo. Hopelessly committed to keeping her in the luxury she demands, the poet compromises his artistic integrity, turning to journalism of the lowest order, degrading and humiliating himself both personally and professionally in an effort to satisfy a woman who brazenly mocks and cuckolds him. Like La Fanfarlo, Jeanne Duval was an actress, a beautiful but shallow woman who gave up her stage career to become the poet s mistress. By 1845, however, as a result of his limited income, Baudelaire was no longer capable of providing her with the lifestyle she had come to expect from him; at this point their relationship degenerated into a nightmare of disillusionment and pain for them both. Nevertheless, the relationship was sustained, and La Fanfarlo is the record of this remarkable affair.
"'La Fanfarlo |is| a subtle and penetrating study. . . Baudelaire has, in it, analyzed with rare insight Ins own personality at the lime of his extravagant life a( the Hôtel Lauzun."
—Enid Starkie Vissza