Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition
Intimate Journals
Flares and My Heart Laid Bare · French with an independent English translation.
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English Page · Branch 31 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · XXX
French
p. 61Mon ivresse en 1848.
De quelle nature était cette ivresse ? Goût de la vengeance. Plaisir naturel de la démolition. Ivresse littéraire ; souvenir des lectures.
Le 15 mai. Toujours le goût de la destruction. Goût légitime, si tout ce qui est naturel est légitime.
Les horreurs de Juin. Folie du peuple et folie de la bourgeoisie. Amour naturel du crime.
Ma fureur au coup d’Etat. Combien j’ai essuyé de coups de fusil ! Encore un Bonaparte ! Quelle honte !
Et cependant tout s’est pacifié. Le Président n’a-t-il pas un droit à invoquer ?
Ce qu’est l’Empereur Napoléon III. Ce qu’il vaut. Trouver l’explication de sa nature, et sa providentialité.
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 62My intoxication in 1848.
What was the nature of that intoxication? A taste for vengeance. The natural pleasure of demolition. Literary intoxication; recollections of reading.
15 May. Still the taste for destruction. A legitimate taste, if everything natural is legitimate.
The horrors of June. The madness of the people and the madness of the bourgeoisie. Natural love of crime.
My fury at the coup d’état. How much rifle fire I came under! Another Bonaparte! What a disgrace!
And yet everything has calmed down. Does the President not have a right he can invoke?
What Emperor Napoleon III is. What he is worth. Find the explanation of his nature, and his providential character.
Socrates
Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · XXX
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Charles Baudelaire’s private fragments turn from art, love, and crowds to prayer, anger, work, and the discipline of writing. This complete bilingual edition presents all 117 sections of Flares and My Heart Laid Bare, including Hygiène, with an introduction and 104 explanatory notes.
Historical Text and Translation
The French follows Adolphe van Bever’s 1920 edition of Journaux intimes, printed pages 3–42 and 45–112. Its 117 Roman-numbered sections contain the complete Fusées and Mon cœur mis à nu, including Hygiène. These fragments were arranged after Baudelaire’s death; their printed sequence preserves that edition’s organization of loose sheets. The separate selection of maxims on love and the editor’s backmatter are outside this volume.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the French. Flares and My Heart Laid Bare retain the fragments’ abrupt turns, repetitions, images, and unfinished projects. French and English paragraphs remain paired, with verse, italics, and printed annotations preserved. The introduction places the notebooks in context; translator’s notes clarify references, ambiguities, and uncertain readings. All 104 notes meet the reader’s Essential criterion and remain available beside their passages.
Rights
Baudelaire’s historical French text and the 1920 printing are in the public domain in the United States. The independent English translation, introduction, and new editorial notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The linked facsimile and catalogue identify the printed source, while a historical transcription supplies a comparison witness. Original annotations retain their attribution, and source references distinguish the printed arrangement from the surviving manuscript sheets.