Scan barcode
rubygranger's review
5.0
"The Painter of Modern Life" is the single most beautiful essay I have ever read. Baudelaire's account of art is lyrically divine -- so much so that you completely forget you are reading:
"When, as he wakes up, M. G. opens his eyes and sees the beating vibrantly at his window-panes, he says to himself with remorse and regret: ‘What an imperative command! What a fanfare of light! Light everywhere for several hours past! Light I have lost in sleep! and endless numbers of things bathed in light that I could have seen and have failed to!’ And off he goes! And he watches the flow of life move by, majestic and dazzling. He admires the eternal beauty and the
astonishing harmony of life in the capital cities, a harmony so providentially maintained in the tumult of human liberty."
"When, as he wakes up, M. G. opens his eyes and sees the beating vibrantly at his window-panes, he says to himself with remorse and regret: ‘What an imperative command! What a fanfare of light! Light everywhere for several hours past! Light I have lost in sleep! and endless numbers of things bathed in light that I could have seen and have failed to!’ And off he goes! And he watches the flow of life move by, majestic and dazzling. He admires the eternal beauty and the
astonishing harmony of life in the capital cities, a harmony so providentially maintained in the tumult of human liberty."
More...