Baudelaire in Chains: A Portrait of the Artist as a Drug
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Hilton, Frank, PUBLISHER: Peter Owen Publishers, Charles Baudelaire was a pivotal link between Romanticism and Modernism and had a major influence on modern poetry, but few who have examined his life and work have fully understood the effect of opiate addiction on his personality, or the extent to which it damaged him. In this fascinating, comprehensive biography, Frank Hilton, lecturer at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in England, contends that the drug is at the root of all of Baudelaire's problems, and in particular his chronic inability to apply himself to any prolonged creative work, which constantly tormented him. Unquestionably there is significantly more to Baudelaire than his opium addiction. But a proper awareness of what it did to the poet helps to illuminate those puzzling aspects of his life and behavior that were not previously understood. This work will give those who know little or nothing about the great poet a wide-ranging portrait of a suffering artist, and to those who are familiar with Baudelaire's life and work, it will present him in an unexpected light.
