Surprisingly, there are few book-length studies available that approach the poems in Charles Baudelaireís collection on an individual basis. Understanding "Les Fleurs du Mal" fills this gap by providing students and serious readers with clear, scholarly "explications" to many of the most widely read of Baudelaire's poems.

William J. Thompson, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Memphis, has written widely on French literature and culture. He recently served as volume editor of The Contemporary Novel in France (University Press of Florida, 1995).