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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Facing Pages · Branch 86 of 118
My Heart Laid Bare · LXXXV
French
p. 171Le Français est un animal de basse-cour si bien domestiqué qu’il n’ose franchir aucune palissade. Voir ses goûts en art et en littérature.
C’est un animal de race latine ; l’ordure ne lui déplaît pas, dans son domicile, et, en littérature, il est scatophage. Il raffole des excréments. Les littérateurs d’estaminet appellent cela le sel gaulois.
Bel exemple de bassesse française, de la nation qui se prétend indépendante avant toutes les autres.
[Ici est collé, sur le manuscrit, cet entrefilet découpé dans un journal :]
« L’extrait suivant du beau livre de M. de Vaulabelle suffira pour donner une idée de l’impression que fit l’évasion de Lavalette sur la portion la moins éclairée du parti royaliste :
« L’emportement royaliste, à ce moment de la seconde Restauration, allait, pour ainsi dire, jusqu’à la folie. La jeune Joséphine de Lavalette faisait son éducation dans l’un des principaux couvents de Paris (l’Abbaye-au-Bois) ; elle ne l’avait quitté que pour venir embrasser son père. Lorsqu’elle y rentra après l’évasion et que l’on connut la part bien modeste qu’elle y avait prise, une immense clameur s’éleva contre cette enfant ; les religieuses et ses compagnes la fuyaient, et bon nombre de parents déclarèrent qu’ils retireraient leurs filles si on la gardait. Ils ne voulaient pas, disaient-ils, laisser leurs enfants en contact avec une jeune personne qui avait tenu une pareille conduite et donné un pareil exemple. Quand Mme de Lavalette, six semaines après, recouvra la liberté, elle fut obligée de reprendre sa fille. »
Intimate Journals: My Heart Laid Bare
p. 172The Frenchman is a farmyard animal so thoroughly domesticated that he dares not cross any fence. See his tastes in art and literature.
He is an animal of the Latin race; filth does not offend him in his home, and in literature he is an excrement eater. He is mad about excrement. Tavern literati call this Gallic wit.
Fine example of French baseness, of the nation that claims to be more independent than any other.
[Here this short item, cut from a newspaper, is pasted onto the manuscript:]
‘The following extract from M. de Vaulabelle’s fine book will suffice to give an idea of the impression Lavalette’s escape made on the least enlightened portion of the royalist party:
‘Royalist fury, at this time of the Second Restoration, went, so to speak, as far as madness. The young Joséphine de Lavalette was being educated in one of the principal convents of Paris (the Abbaye-au-Bois); she had left it only to come and embrace her father. When she returned after the escape and the very modest part she had played in it became known, an immense outcry arose against this child; the nuns and her companions avoided her, and a good number of parents declared that they would withdraw their daughters if she were kept there. They did not want, they said, to leave their children in contact with a young person who had behaved in such a way and set such an example. When Mme de Lavalette, six weeks later, regained her freedom, she was obliged to take her daughter back.’
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Reading Intimate Journals · My Heart Laid Bare · My Heart Laid Bare · LXXXV
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.