Les Fleurs du mal

First edition printed on vélin d'Angoulême. Complete copy with the six banned poems and the usual misprints.

Half shagreen binding, spine with four raised bands twice ruled in gilt with gilt fleurons, marbled paper boards, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves, contemporary binding. Some foxing scattered foxing.  

This first and principal Baudelaire collection of poems was partly censored upon publication on accounts of “offense to public morality, religious morality, and decency.” Some 200 copies were seized in bookshops and stripped of six poems.
Many questions remain regarding the printing and distribution of this major work of French literature. It is often claimed that the expurgated copies were still unsold and in bookshops before the “ridiculous surgical operation” (to use Baudelaire's own words) carried out on 200 copies available for sale. In fact, Baudelaire's correspondence as well as his publisher's Poulet-Malassis show that sales were far from successful. Most of the copies were simply withdrawn and “put in a safe place” by the author and the publisher:

“Quickly hide, but hide the whole print run well; you must have 900 copies in loose leaves left. There were still 100 at Lanier’s; those gentlemen seemed very surprised that I wanted to save 50, I put them in a safe place [...]. So there remain 50 to feed the Cerberus Justice,” wrote Baudelaire to Poulet-Malassis on 11 July 1857.

His publisher immediately complied, distributing his stock among various “accomplices,” including Asselineau, to whom he wrote on 13 July:

"Baudelaire has written me a hasty letter which I received yesterday, in which he informs me of the seizure [by the censors]. I am waiting to see him to believe it, but in any case we have taken our precautions. The copies are safe, and taking advantage of your good will we are today sending by rail... a crate containing 200 copies in loose leaves, which I ask you to keep until my next trip...“

No record has been found of these hidden copies ever returning to the trade, apart from a later issue in 1858 with a new title page.
The rarity of first edition copies of Les Fleurs du mal - especially in contemporary bindings - suggests that at least part of the withdrawn and unsold stock may have simply disappeared.
Copies in elegant contemporary bindings are rare proof of an early and discerning appreciation for the first collection of a then-unknown, scandalous poet, and retain the confidential charm of 19th-century literary circles.
A fine copy in a strictly contemporary half binding.