Charles Baudelaire - Les Fleurs du Mal [édition pré-originale Revue des Deux Mondes] - 1855

Paris, Bureau of the Revue des Deux Mondes, from May 15 to June 15, 1855. A complete year in-8° volume (165 x 245 mm) of 1,336 pages, numbered from 1 to 1,336.
The binding is quite solid.

Historical binding in half-leather, with decorated spine.
Original edition of eighteen poems from 'Les Fleurs du Mal,' which will be published in a collection by Auguste Poulet-Malassis (1825-1878) in 1857, and whose final title appears here for the first time. In fact, three of these pieces: III. The Barrel of Hatred, XI. The Bell [which will become: The Cracked Bell], and XIV. The Spleen (which will become: De Profundis Clamavi), had already been published elsewhere with others in the 'Messager de l'Assemblée' on April 9, 1851, under the general title: 'Les Limbes.' The other fifteen pieces were still unpublished at that time: I. To the Reader, II. Reversibility, IV. The Confession, V. The Spiritual Dawn, VI. Pleasure (which will become The Destruction), VII. Voyage to Cythera, VIII. To the Beautiful with Golden Hair (which will become The Irreparable), IX. Invitation to Travel, X. Moesta and Errabunda, XII. The Enemy, XIII. Past Life, XV. Posthumous Remorse, XVI. Bad Luck, XVII. Beatrice (which will become The Vampire), XVIII. Love and the Skull. The publisher's presentation (page 1079) is notably cautious: 'By publishing the verses you are about to read, we believe we are once again demonstrating how much the spirit that animates us is supportive of attempts, of ventures in the broadest sense.'

In addition to interesting articles about the literary time of the era.