Charles BAUDELAIRE
Lettre autographe signée à Poulet-Malassis à propos de Sainte-Beuve : « voilà un vieillard passionné avec qui il ne fait pas bon se brouiller »
Honfleur 28 février 1859, 13,1x20,5cm, 3 pages sur un feuillet remplié.
Precious autograph letter signed by Charles Baudelaire to Auguste Poulet-Malassis, publisher of Les Fleurs du Mal, dated 28 February 1859 and written in Honfleur. 64 lines in black ink, with several underlined passages. Housed in a modern black half morocco folder.Baudelaire seems obsessed by ‘the Sainte-Beuve/Babou affair', one of the many literary quarrels that followed the trial of Les Fleurs du Mal,
in which the writer Hippolyte Babou accused Sainte-Beuve of not having defended Baudelaire during the trial.Passages from this letter were quoted by Marcel Proust in his famous Contre Sainte-Beuve, deploring Sainte-Beuve's cowardice in the Fleurs du Mal trial and Baudelaire's undeserved attachment to the writer.The poet wrote to his publisher from Honfleur, where he had retired in January to be with his mother, a sacred figure ‘who haunts her son's heart and mind'.
The letter was written eight days after another twist in the
Fleurs du mal trial.
Baudelaire, prey to complex feelings, confided in Malassis that on 20 January his friend Hippolyte Babou had attacked Sainte-Beuve in an article in
La Revue française. He accused him of not having defended Baudelaire during the trial: "He will glorify
Fanny [by Ernest Feydeau], the honest man, and remain silent on
Les Fleurs du Mal". For despite Baudelaire's pleas, Sainte-Beuve had never in the end published an article defending
Les Fleurs du Mal.
Following Babou's attack, Baudelaire received a “horrible letter” from Sainte-Beuve: “
It seems that the blow [...] had struck [Sainte-Beuve] hard. I must do him justice—he did not believe that I could have suggested such things to Babou.” Sainte-Beuve, although indignant at such accusations, did not hold him responsible. The virulence shown by Sainte Beuve astonished Baudelaire, who declared to Poulet-Malassis:
“Decidedly, here is a passionate old man with whom it is dangerous to quarrel. [...] You cannot imagine what Sainte-Beuve's letter is like. It seems that for twelve years, he has been keeping track of every sign of hostility from Babou”. Baudelaire finds himself powerless in this quarrel between two men he esteems and, above all, expresses his concern for his relationship with Sainte-Beuve, which Babou's article has placed in jeopardy: “Either Babou wanted to help me (which implies a degree of stupidity), or he wanted to play a trick on me; or, without caring for my interests, he was pursuing some obscure personal grudge”.
Baudelaire held boundless admiration for “
uncle Beuve”, a senator, academician, and undisputed master of literary criticism, whose influence held sway over all of Parisian literary circles. For years, he had hoped for an official endorsement that could have bolstered his faltering career, which had been tarnished by the scandal of
Les Fleurs du Mal. The poet thus found himself torn between his veneration for Sainte-Beuve and his long-standing friendship with Hippolyte Babou - who, according to legend, suggested the title
Les Fleurs du Mal to him. He lamented to Poulet-Malassis: "What was dangerous for me in all this was that Babou seemed to be defending me against someone who had done me countless favors". One may wonder what favors Baudelaire was referring to, given that Sainte-Beuve had done very little for his career.
This letter was quoted in
Against Sainte-Beuve, Marcel Proust's famous and terrible indictment published posthumously in 1954. In it, Proust accuses Sainte-Beuve of failing to recognise Baudelaire's undeniable poetic genius, and highlights his cowardice during the
Fleurs du Mal trial. In fact, in order to protect his role as a senator, Sainte-Beuve had written nothing in Baudelaire's favour, with the exception of a ‘defence plan which the lawyer was authorised to use, but without naming Sainte-Beuve'.
Almost two years after the verdict, the disastrous trial of the
Fleurs du Mal continued to haunt Baudelaire, who still lived in fear of the criticism, which was very harsh towards him: "
See how this Babou affair could harm me—especially when placed alongside that vile Figaro piece, which claimed that: I spend my life mocking the leaders of Romanticism, to whom I owe everything". This article, published on June 6, 1858, mocked Baudelaire by describing him as a character escaped from a novel by Théophile Gautier, living in the real world under the pseudonym Charles Baudelaire.
Baudelaire also confides in Poulet-Malassis about his ongoing financial difficulties, which he had tried in vain to forget by visiting his mother, and asked him for an additional advance: "I still haven't heard about your 1,035 francs". His letter ends with a long postscript concerning Théophile Gautier, on whom Baudelaire was writing an article. Arsène Houssaye, director of L'Artiste, demanded that Gautier review the article before it could be published: "
And some want to send the proofs to Gautier, and others want to wait for his return at the end of April! He [Théophile Gautier], before leaving, told me he entrusted everything to me". After Sainte-Beuve, he again testifies to a literary friendship that left a mark on his life, and prides himself on the trust placed in him by Théophile Gautier, who was then in Russia. The support of these great figures of literary Paris encouraged Baudelaire, beset by misery and scandals, to pursue his poetic journey, which would culminate a year later in the collection
Les Paradis artificiels.An exceptional confession from Baudelaire to his publisher, in the turmoil following the trial of his most famous collection. I
n this letter, Baudelaire brings together two of his greatest literary influences, Sainte-Beuve and Théophile Gautier, the ‘impeccable poet' to whom he had dedicated his scandalous Fleurs du Mal.
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