Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

—from Charles Baudelaire’s “Be Drunk”, translated by Louis Simpson

Mallarmé, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Sartre, Eliot, Lowell, Heaney—these are but a few of the writers who have claimed Baudelaire as predecessor, celebrating Baudelaire’s prose-poetry and his eccentric juxtapositions of urban beauty and decay.

In this three-session literary seminar, celebrated writer and scholar Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses selected poems from Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen, among other collections.

Class meets from 2:30–3:45 p.m. on Wednesdays: April 9, 16, and 23.

Students may use whichever edition of Baudelaire’s work they have on hand. 

This live, virtual course is structured to encourage active participation. Registrants will receive Zoom links a week before each session, a day prior to each session, and the morning of each session. All recordings will be made available within forty-eight hours of a session. All recordings and class materials will remain available for thirty days after the final session. 

Scholarship applications must be submitted by Wednesday, March 19, at 5 p.m.

For information on how to register, how to receive the member discount, how to apply for a scholarship, how to access recordings and course materials, and more, please visit our FAQ page.