Professor Edward Kaplan's edition of 'Les Fleurs du Mal' published

Moliere & Co. classroom edition geared toward American students

Moliere & Co., publishers of European literature designed for English-speaking students, recently published Brandeis French and comparative literature professor Edward Kaplan's classroom edition of the French classic "Les Fleurs du Mal."

After using another of Moliere & Co.'s series of editions aimed at American students for a course on the French novel, Kaplan decided to try his hand at a pedagogical presentation of French poet Charles Baudelaire's work. In addition to the authoritative French text, words, difficult expressions and allusions are glossed in the margins or in footnotes.

"It gave me the opportunity to study every single poem, in sequence, of arguably the most influential poet in Europe after Dante," Kaplan said.

He notes that while his edition, which took more than two years to complete, does not include interpretation of every poem, he offers his own point of view in the introduction.