« Voilà un vieillard passionné avec qui il ne fait pas bon se brouiller »

Remarkable 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, some passages underlined, housed in a modern black half-morocco folder.

Baudelaire appears preoccupied with the “ Sainte-Beuve/Babou affair,” one of the many controversies following the Fleurs du Mal trial, in which the writer Hippolyte Babou accused Sainte-Beuve of failing to defend Baudelaire during the proceedings.
Excerpts from this letter were quoted by Marcel Proust in his celebrated Contre Sainte-Beuve, where he lamented Sainte-Beuve’s cowardice during the trial of Les Fleurs du Mal and the undue esteem Baudelaire continued to show him.

The poet writes from Honfleur, where he had retired in January to live with his mother, a revered figure “who haunts her son’s heart and mind.”
This letter was written eight days after a new development in the aftermath of the Fleurs du Mal trial. Torn by conflicting emotions, Baudelaire confides in Malassis after his friend Hippolyte Babou had, on 20 January, published an article in La Revue française attacking Sainte-Beuve for failing to defend Baudelaire during the trial: “He will glorify Fanny [by Ernest Feydeau], the honest man, and remain silent about Les Fleurs du Mal,” he wrote. Despite Baudelaire’s pleas, Sainte-Beuve had never published anything in support of the collection.
In response to Babou’s attack, Baudelaire received a “horrible letter” from Sainte-Beuve: “It seems the blow [...] struck [Sainte-Beuve] deeply. I must do him the justice of saying he did not believe I had prompted Babou in any way.” Although outraged by the accusations, Sainte-Beuve did not hold Baudelaire personally responsible. Baudelaire is surprised by the critic’s vehemence, writing to Poulet-Malassis: “Truly, here is a passionate old man with whom it is dangerous to fall out [...] You cannot imagine what that letter from Sainte-Beuve is like. It appears that for twelve years he had been noting every sign of malice from Babou.” Baudelaire stands helpless amid the quarrel between two respected men, while expressing a clear attachment to Sainte-Beuve, now jeopardised by Babou’s article: “Either Babou wanted to help me (which would imply a certain degree of stupidity), or he wanted to play a trick on me; or he simply pursued a mysterious grudge without any concern for my interests.”
Baudelaire indeed held Sainte-Beuve—“Uncle Beuve”—in the highest regard. A senator, an academician, and the undisputed master of literary criticism, Sainte-Beuve’s opinions carried great weight in Parisian literary circles. For years, Baudelaire had awaited a formal sign of approval from Sainte-Beuve, which might have bolstered his fragile career, still tarnished by the scandal of Les Fleurs du Mal. The poet thus finds himself torn between his admiration for Sainte-Beuve and his long-standing friendship with Hippolyte Babou—who, according to legend, suggested the title Les Fleurs du Mal. To Poulet-Malassis, he confides: “What made this situation dangerous for me was that Babou appeared to be defending me against someone who had done me a great many favours.” It remains unclear what Baudelaire meant by “favours,” given that Sainte-Beuve had done relatively little to advance his career.
This letter was later quoted in Marcel Proust’s posthumously published Contre Sainte-Beuve (1954), a fierce and famous indictment in which Proust reproaches Sainte-Beuve for failing to recognise Baudelaire’s poetic genius and highlights his cowardice during the Fleurs du Mal trial. To preserve his position in the Senate, Sainte-Beuve refrained from public support and provided only a “defence strategy which the lawyer was authorised to use, provided Sainte-Beuve’s name was not mentioned.”
Nearly two years after the verdict, the disastrous trial of Les Fleurs du Mal still haunted Baudelaire, who remained in the grip of critical hostility: “See how disagreeable this Babou affair might be for me, especially if it is linked to that vile article in the Figaro, where it was claimed: that I spend my life mocking the leaders of Romanticism, to whom I owe everything.” That Figaro article, published on 6 June 1858, sarcastically portrayed Baudelaire as a character escaped from a novel by Théophile Gautier, living under the pseudonym Charles Baudelaire.
He also writes to Poulet-Malassis about financial matters he had tried to forget during his stay with his mother, now requesting an advance: “I’ve still had no news of your 1,035 francs.” The letter closes with a long postscript about Théophile Gautier, on whom Baudelaire was writing an article. Arsène Houssaye, editor of the journal L’Artiste, required Gautier to review the piece before publication: “Some want to send Gautier the proofs, and others want to wait for his return at the end of April ! He [Gautier], before leaving, told me he was leaving everything up to me.”
After Sainte-Beuve, Baudelaire once again evokes a key literary friendship, priding himself on the trust placed in him by Théophile Gautier, then in Russia. The support of these major figures of the Paris literary scene encouraged Baudelaire, beset by poverty and scandal, to persevere in his poetic journey, which would culminate a year later in the publication of Les Paradis artificiels.
An exceptional letter in which Baudelaire confides in his publisher, written amid the turmoil following the trial of his most famous collection. In these lines, he 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.