Les Fleurs du mal

First edition on vélin d'Angoulême (laid paper), complete with all six banned poems, with the usual typographical errors.
Contemporary red half sheepskin binding, spine with four raised bands framed in gilt adorned with gilt fleurons, red glazed calico boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges.

Baudelaire's first and principal collection of verse, the work was partially censored upon publication for "offence against public morality, religious morality, and common decency." Some 200 copies were seized from booksellers and stripped of six poems.

Many questions remain unanswered about the printing and distribution of this major work of French literature. Unredacted copies are often presented as copies sold before the "ridiculous surgical operation" (Baudelaire's own words) performed by Poulet-Malassis on the 200 copies still available. Baudelaire's correspondence, like Poulet-Malassis, reveals sales were nowhere near as successful. Most copies were simply withdrawn from sale and "put in a safe place" by the author and publisher:

"Quickly hide, but make sure to hide the whole edition well; you must have 900 still unsewn copies. - There were still 100 at Lanier; these gentlemen seemed very surprised that I wanted to save 50, so I put them in a safe place [...]. That leaves 50 to feed the Cerberus Justice [copies to be seized by the French government]" (Letter from Baudelaire to Poulet-Malassis, 11 July 1857).

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

"Baudelaire wrote me a letter I received yesterday, announcing the court-ordered seizure. I'll have to wait to see it to believe it, but in any case, we've taken our precautions. The copies are safe and thanks to your good will, we will send today by train... a box containing 200 unsewn copies, which I beg you to keep until my next visit...".

 

We have not found any record of these hidden copies being offered on sale again except for copies put on sale the next year, with a new title-page dated 1858. 
The scarcity of first edition copies of The Flowers of Evil, and even more so in their original soft cover, could lead us to suspect at least some unsold and uncensored copies ultimately 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.

Handsome copy housed in an elegant contemporary half-binding.