# Is "Les Fleurs du mal" by Charles Baudelaire a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire (Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, Paris, 1857) is identified by: Three textual points identify the first printing: "Feurs" for "Fleurs" in the running headline on pages 31 and 108; page 45 misnumbered 44; and on page 201 the last word of the first line reads "captieux" for "capiteux." Issued in yellow printed wrappers. The French original, Paris 1857, is the true first — the census claim is correct, and there is no competing English or other-language edition of any standing.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Three textual points identify the first printing: "Feurs" for "Fleurs" in the running headline on pages 31 and 108; page 45 misnumbered 44; and on page 201 the last word of the first line reads "captieux" for "capiteux." Issued in yellow printed wrappers
- Carteret and Desprechins distinguish four states of the wrapper and deduce a chronology from them: the earliest states carry "Henry" for "Henri" and give the Jean de Schelandre dates as "1385-1636"; those errors are put right in the third state, and the fourth state is a wholly reset design carrying a modern-library announcement
- The printed price on the wrapper also changes between states
- A complete copy contains all six poems later condemned: Les Bijoux, Le Léthé, À celle qui est trop gaie, Lesbos, Femmes damnées, and Les Métamorphoses du vampire
- Carteret I, 118-123
- Publisher imprint reads Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, Paris
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Baudelaire |
| Publisher | Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, Paris |
| Year | 1857 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Three textual points identify the first printing: "Feurs" for "Fleurs" in the running headline on pages 31 and 108; page 45 misnumbered 44… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Three textual points identify the first printing: "Feurs" for "Fleurs" in the running headline on pages 31 and 108; page 45 misnumbered 44; and on page 201 the last word of the first line reads "captieux" for "capiteux." Issued in yellow printed wrappers. Carteret and Desprechins distinguish four states of the wrapper and deduce a chronology from them: the earliest states carry "Henry" for "Henri" and give the Jean de Schelandre dates as "1385-1636"; those errors are put right in the third state, and the fourth state is a wholly reset design carrying a modern-library announcement. The printed price on the wrapper also changes between states. A complete copy contains all six poems later condemned: Les Bijoux, Le Léthé, À celle qui est trop gaie, Lesbos, Femmes damnées, and Les Métamorphoses du vampire. Carteret I, 118-123.

## Is this the true first?
The French original, Paris 1857, is the true first — the census claim is correct, and there is no competing English or other-language edition of any standing. Roughly 1,100 copies of the 1,300 printed were for sale, plus about 20 hors-commerce copies on Holland paper, most signed by Baudelaire. After the August 1857 obscenity conviction the six poems were physically cut from copies then in the publisher's hands, so an intact copy retaining the six is the point that matters. The 1861 Poulet-Malassis second edition (February 1861, adding 35 new poems and the "Tableaux parisiens" section, but without the six condemned poems) is separately collected, as is Les Épaves (Belgium, 1866), which first reprinted the condemned pieces; the ban in France was not lifted until 1949.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue. The traps: mutilated 1857 copies lacking the condemned leaves offered as complete; the 1861 second edition catalogued as a "first edition" because it is the first appearance of 35 poems; and the 1868 posthumous Œuvres complètes text, which is the source of most later reprints and of the standard modern text.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Les Fleurs du mal* by Charles Baudelaire a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/les-fleurs-du-mal
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.