Les Fleurs du mal, once the most infamous book of poems in French literature, became in the twentieth century the most famous, and the most admired: its challenge to convention when it was first published in 1857 led to its judicial condemnation, but it owes its 'landmark' status to the sheer aesthetic quality of its verses. In this volume, Professor Leakey provides a newly comprehensive guide to the understanding and appreciation of Les Fleurs du mal, offering fresh insights into its composition, themes and style (sound as well as sense), and setting it in its historical context. A whole chapter is devoted to Baudelaire's crowning poetic achievement, Le Cygne, and the book includes a detailed index to individual poems as well as a guide to further reading.