Charles-Pierre Baudelaire’s novella

(“La Fanfarlo” is the name of the dancer in the novella), his only piece of prose fiction, was published in the January 1847 volume of the

under the name Charles Defayis, which was his mother’s family name. The work is an ironical self-portrait of the young Baudelaire (1821-1867), and it also encompasses some of his early reflections on the condition and role of the poet and artist in the emerging capitalist society of the mid-nineteenth century in France.

La Fanfarlo is comprised of two narrative sequences. In the first, Samuel Cramer, the protagonist and Baudelaire’s alter ego, is presented as a notorious young poet and dandyish rake. While walking in the Luxembourg Gardens one evening,

1988 words

Citation: McKellar, Kenneth. "La Fanfarlo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 August 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11255, accessed 31 October 2024.]

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