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Writing by Poe
Translation by Baudelaire

A French-English Dual Language Book


new material in this book, including the arrangement of the text, copyright © 2020


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Two Great Writers

French critics have long considered Edgar Allen Poe one of the greatest writers in the English language—and that may be because they read his works in translations by one of the greatest writers in the French language, Charles Baudelaire.

Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet and story writer, known for poems like “The Raven” and stories like “The Pit and the Pendulum,” both of which are included in this book. He is one of the inventors of the horror story and of the mystery story. On October 3, 1849, he was found wandering the streets of Baltimore raving deliriously and wearing clothes that were not his own; he died four days later.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was one of the most important nineteenth-century French poets, famous for Fleurs de Mal (Flowers of Evil), a collection of his lyric poems, and for other poems and prose-poems. In 1847, he discovered Poe’s works, which he said had long existed in his own mind but which he had never written. During the next eighteen years, he spend much of his time translating Poe. By 1859, his health had declined because of his use of opium, his excessive drinking, and stress from his financial difficulties. He had a stroke in 1866 and was paralyzed until his death in 1867.

This dual-language book includes works of Poe and translations by Baudelaire on facing pages, with paragraphs aligned, so it is easy to read the English and French translation at the same time.