From the book
Intimate Journals
Charles Baudelaire · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordPoe and de Maistre form an arresting pair in Mon cœur mis à nu CXI: Baudelaire says they taught him to reason.
- In Intimate JournalsMon cœur mis à nu XLVII projects a history of translating Poe; Fusées XVIII includes him among writers of an eternal, cosmopolitan style.
- In this editionThe 2026 translation keeps the personal ‘taught me’ and does not expand the claim into a philosophical genealogy.
- A place to readDe Maistre et Edgar Poe m’ont appris à raisonner.
Meaning
Poe and de Maistre form an arresting pair in Mon cœur mis à nu CXI: Baudelaire says they taught him to reason. The statement identifies chosen teachers, but does not specify a common system or authorize deriving every notebook proposition from one of them. Reasoning is presented as a learned practice within an intimate history of reading.
A named writer can function in several ways here: source to translate, model of style, authority to consult, imagined witness, or spiritual intercessor. These relations should not be collapsed into the vague label influence.
Use in the book
Mon cœur mis à nu XLVII projects a history of translating Poe; Fusées XVIII includes him among writers of an eternal, cosmopolitan style. These references concern literary labour and form. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVII then names Poe with the father and Mariette as an intercessor in the morning prayer, placing literary kinship inside a private devotional constellation.
De Maistre appears among the names attached to universal religion in Mon cœur mis à nu LXXIX and returns beside Poe in the work-note. That association makes sense as a record of intellectual allegiance without proving that Baudelaire repeats de Maistre faithfully. The speculative question whether creation could be God's fall and the notebook's incompatible judgments caution against assigning it a coherent borrowed theology.
Other authorities can become checks on self-deception. Mon cœur mis à nu CXVI's invocation of Jean-Jacques follows the dangerous inference that understanding a glorious existence means being capable of realizing it. The note does not supply a Rousseau quotation. Mon cœur mis à nu CXV, by contrast, explicitly attributes copied reflections on misfortune and delay to Chateaubriand. Reading the different signals of borrowing is part of understanding the notebook's thinking.
Places to read
- Mon cœur mis à nu CXIDe Maistre et Edgar Poe m’ont appris à raisonner. — A personal claim of apprenticeship joins unlike writers.
- Mon cœur mis à nu XLVIIHistoire de ma traduction d’Edgar Poe. — Translation is a projected autobiographical subject.
- Mon cœur mis à nu CXVIIà Poe, comme intercesseurs — Literary attachment becomes part of private prayer.
- Mon cœur mis à nu CXVIO Jean-Jacques ! — An invocation marks a recognition without furnishing its exact source.
Translation in this edition
The 2026 translation keeps the personal ‘taught me’ and does not expand the claim into a philosophical genealogy. Note 102 identifies the shortened Chateaubriand passage and distinguishes notebook compression from the fuller source. Note 103 leaves the appeal to Jean-Jacques an invocation. Such distinctions are more trustworthy than invented quotations attached to familiar names.