The Flowers of Evil, which T. S. Eliot called the greatest example of modern poetry in any language, shocked the literary world of nineteenth century France with its outspoken portrayal of lesbian love, its linking sexuality and death, its unremitting irony, and its unflinching celebration of the seamy side of urban life. The volume was seized by the police, and Baudelaire and his published were put on trial for offence to public decency. Six offending poems were banned, in a conviction that was not overturned until 1949. This bold new translation, which restores the banned poems to their original places and reveals the full richness and variety of the collection, makes available to English speakers a powerful and original version of the world. Jonathan Culler's Introduction outlines this vision, stressing that Baudelaire is more than just the poet of the modern city. Originally to be called 'The Lesbians', The Flowers of Evil contains the most extraordinary body of love poetry. The poems also pose the question of the role of evil in our lives, of whether there are not external forces working to frustrate human plans and to enlist men and women on appalling or stultifying scenarios not of their own making.

夏爾·波德萊爾（Charles Baudelair, 1821-1867），法國詩人。作品有詩集《惡之花》和散文詩集《巴黎的憂鬱》，另寫有大量文學和美學論文。他被認為是使歐洲人的經驗方式和寫作方式發生重大變革的作傢，他的美學理論在詩歌和藝術史上是一個重大轉摺點，是現代主義各流派靈感與理論的不盡泉源。

郭宏安，1943年生，吉林省長春市人，原籍山東萊蕪縣。畢業於北京大學西語係和中國社會科學院研究生院外國文學係。現任中國社會科學院外國文學研究所研究員，博士生導師，兼任該所學術委員會副主任，中國社會科學院比較文學研究中心主任。中國作傢協會會員。