In Praise of Cosmetics - Paperback

by Charles Baudelaire (Author), Jonathan Mayne (Translator)

"Everything beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation."

Nature, Baudelaire says, is ugly--and art is what saves us from it. This wicked, brilliant fragment defends makeup not as deception but as devotion: a ritual rebellion against decay, chance, and animal life. To paint the face is to reject nature's chaos and choose artifice--freely, proudly, and exquisitely.

Author Biography

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a poet, critic, and provocateur who dragged beauty into the modern age. His masterpiece, The Flowers of Evil, scandalized Paris and reshaped poetry with its fusion of decadence, despair, and ecstasy.