Most of the original poems in this book were published by Baudelaire in 1857 and 1861 under the title 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (The Flowers of Evil). Baudelaire died in 1867, and in 1868 some of his friends published a posthumous edition of 'Les Fleurs du Mal', which contained many of Baudelaire's other poems. For the purposes of the present work I have included all of the posthumously published pieces, as well as the six poems that were banned by the court in 1857 for offending against public decency. Interestingly, it was not until 1949 that the judgment was overturned and their publication in France was authorised. The poems in question are 'Lesbos', 'To Her who is too Gay', 'The Lethe', 'The Jewels', 'Damned Women (Delphine and Hippolyta)' and 'The Metamorphoses of the Vampire'.