Paris Spleen

"Keith Waldrop's task as translator is challenging. ... He is capable of compression, successfully handling the text's moments of laconic satire (the wealthy drinking from 'glasses larger than their thirst').... Above all, he keeps faith with Baudelaire's overarching aim: to accommodate things, and people, out of place, in a language equally alienated."—Ben Morgan, Times Literary Supplement

"Baudelaire considered prose poetry a miracle genre. ... The present translation of Baudelaire's seminal work offers many advantages. ... (Waldrop) writes in clear, powerful English. And above all, he makes the right choices, those one would expect from an award-winning poet and seasoned translator.... Waldrop conveys the lyricism and satire of the original. His English mirrors the musicality of French. ... Essential."—C.B. Kerr, Choice

"Keith Waldrop's task as translator is challenging. ... He is capable of compression, successfully handling the text's moments of laconic satire (the wealthy drinking from 'glasses larger than their thirst'). Above all, he keeps faith with Baudelaire's overarching aim: to accommodate things, and people, out of place, in a language equally alienated."—Ben Morgan, Times Literary Supplement

"This is Baudelaire at the limit, having uncovered a new feeling that does indeed appear as a moral history, the private life in the public turn."—Joshua Clover, The Nation

"A handsome pendant to Waldrop's previous translation of The Flowers of Evil. There, his prose provided a sober caution against poetic inebriation; here it registers the sorry morning-after of the lyric subject."—Richard Sieburth

"Waldrop's translations soarperhaps getting closer to Baudelaire's rich tone than any other translation."—Chicago Review