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Diotimos Library · Journals, Notebooks & Fragments Collection · Bilingual Edition

Charles Baudelaire

Intimate Journals

Flares and My Heart Laid Bare · French with an independent English translation.

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Intimate JournalsMy Heart Laid Bare · LXXIX

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My Heart Laid Bare · LXXIX

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French

p. 159

Il n’y a rien d’intéressant sur la terre que les religions.

Qu’est-ce que la religion universelle (Chateaubriand, de Maistre, les Alexandrins, Capé) ?

Il y a une religion universelle faite pour les alchimistes de la pensée, une religion qui se dégage de l’homme, considéré comme mémento divin.

159

Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare

p. 160

Nothing on earth is interesting except religions.

What is universal religion (Chateaubriand, de Maistre, the Alexandrians, Capé)?

There is a universal religion made for the alchemists of thought, a religion that emerges from man, considered as a divine compendium.

160

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.