From the book
Intimate Journals
Charles Baudelaire · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordJeu ranges from play or a game to gambling.
- In Intimate JournalsFusées VIII declares that life's only true charm is the charm of the Game, then immediately asks what happens if winning or losing leaves us indifferent.
- In this editionThe 2026 translation deliberately distinguishes capitalized ‘Game’ in Fusées VIII from ‘Gambling’ in Fusées XVII.
- A place to readle charme du Jeu — Capitalization gives the ordinary activity the breadth of a life analogy.
Meaning
Jeu ranges from play or a game to gambling. The surrounding verbs of winning and losing supply stakes without determining one fixed kind of contest. The notebooks exploit that breadth: life, erotic struggle and the comparison between intermittent gain and steady work can all be described through the same lexical field.
A game promises suspense because its result matters without being certain. Indifference to that result threatens its charm. Yet taking the result too seriously can surrender the self to risk or make another person a necessary loser. The word therefore tests both attachment and self-command.
Use in the book
Fusées VIII declares that life's only true charm is the charm of the Game, then immediately asks what happens if winning or losing leaves us indifferent. The question prevents the maxim from settling into a cheerful philosophy of play. It suggests an exhaustion deeper than simple defeat: the structure that made outcomes desirable may itself cease to grip us.
Fusées III offers a different game, dreadful because one player must lose command of himself. Here the stakes are not tokens or money but self-government. The comparison makes unequal erotic possession resemble a contest with a predetermined kind of casualty, although it does not say in advance which sex must lose. The lovers' reciprocal forgiveness in Fusées XXII supplies an encounter whose value is not obviously organized by a victor and a vanquished.
Fusées XVII explicitly contrasts gambling with work. Gambling remains intermittent even when guided by science and temporarily fruitful; slight but continuous work eventually wins because it accumulates. This is a moral and practical comparison, not a proof about every possible wager or a financial recommendation. The important change is in the model of time. Suspense concentrates attention in exceptional outcomes, while labour builds faculties as well as results. The notebook's own flashes coexist uneasily with its demand for sustained effort.
Places to read
- Fusées VIIIle charme du Jeu — Capitalization gives the ordinary activity the breadth of a life analogy.
- Fusées VIIIs’il nous est indifférent de gagner ou de perdre — The following question undermines the stability of the maxim.
- Fusées IIIl’un des joueurs perde le gouvernement de soi-même — The erotic game stakes the capacity to govern oneself.
- Fusées XVIILe jeu, même dirigé par la science, force intermittente — Gambling’s intermittence is contrasted with cumulative work.
Translation in this edition
The 2026 translation deliberately distinguishes capitalized ‘Game’ in Fusées VIII from ‘Gambling’ in Fusées XVII. This is a contextual choice within one French word, not evidence that Baudelaire used unrelated concepts. ‘Players’ in Fusées III preserves the extension into erotic conflict. Readers should keep these English choices connected while resisting the temptation to translate all three passages as either harmless play or literal betting.