25.5 x 19.5 cm paperback, with portrait of Baudelaire in frontispiece, very rich illustration composed of 8 inserts including the portrait, 19 scenes of about one-third of a page, 140 headbands and 80 end pieces engraved on wood, reused several times, numbered copy 351/1000 on laid paper of Arches. The cover is faded, 2 yellowed pages 62 & 63, broaching on the lower part of the cover is loose (see photo), the interior of the book is in perfect condition. Comes with 9 handwritten notes on the book. Raphael Drouart, painter, draughtsman, engraver exhibited at the Musée des Années 30. Published on 25th June 1857, the book immediately shocked contemporary society, conformist and concerned about respectability. Covered with opprobrium, its author undergoes a resounding trial. The ruling sentenced him to a heavy fine, reduced intervention of the Empress; It causes the censorship of six parts deemed immoral. From 1861 to 1868, the book was reissued in three successive versions enriched with new poems; prohibited parts appear in Belgium. The rehabilitation will take place nearly a century later, in May 1949. It is a major work of modern poetry. Its 163 plays break with the agreed style, in use until then. It rejuvenates the structure of the verse by the regular use of enjambements, rejets and contre-rejets. It renovates the rigid form of the sonnet. It mixes learned language and daily talk. Breaking with a romanticism that rented for half a century, Nature to trivialise, it celebrates the city and especially Paris.