Product Description

This study is an examination of Baudelaire's art criticism and its relationship with his creative writing. It is the first book in English to treat in one volume the diverse aspects of the subject: the principal aesthetic ideas, the importance of Delacroix, Boudin, Meryon, Guys, and Manet, the essays on laughter and caricature, and the language and rhetoric of the Salons and other critical writings. The title reflects Baudelaire's conviction, which emphasizes in relation to Delacroix, Daumier, Guys, and Wagner, that all art, whether it is painting, poetry or music, springs from the memory of the artist and speaks to the memory of the consumer of that art. This idea, exemplified in his own creative writing, extends to criticism itself, which is seen primarily as a phenomenon of recognition, and it is that sense of recognition that the author has sought to emphasize throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3645344 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 328 pages

Robert Snell, TLS
"give(s) us Baudelaire in all his complexity and contradictions."

Review
Baudelaire and the Art of Memory is an exceptional and integrating work of scholarship, and a landmark in the field. (Modern Language Review )

In this book Hiddleston is at his best: the impressive erudition, the thoroughness of the documentary account, the focus and keenness of the argument, and the critical sensitivity to the Baudelairian text all mark this out as a work of genuine scholarship. (Modern Language Review )

The book offers us new perpectives on Baudelaire and caricature, as well as a close analysis of his theory of laughter. (Journal of European Studies )

... give(s) us Baudelaire in all his complexity and contradictions. (Robert Snell, TLS )

Robert Snell, TLS
"... give(s) us Baudelaire in all his complexity and contradictions."