In mid-19th century Paris, the common people were caught
between revolutions, artists fuelled their inspiration with
opium, and poet Charles Baudelaire found inspiration and
frustration in the arms of Haitian cabaret singer Jeanne
Duval. In BLACK VENUS, author James MacManus effectively
shapes their 20-year relationship against the backdrop of an
evolving city.
MacManus vividly describes the disparate aspects of Paris,
painting detailed verbal pictures that take us from dirty
alleys and seedy hotels to the finest restaurants and
apartments. The language, especially the dialogue, evokes
the 1800s, sounding in my head like a translation of a
foreign historical novel. I found it a little more
difficult to read than a more modern-sounding tome, but it's
all true to the period.
Baudelaire is a struggling poet and translator during most
of the book. He faces criticism, obscenity charges, and
poverty, along with addictions to drugs and Duval. She is a
cabaret singer and opium dealer when they meet; she seems to
introduce him to the drug and throughout his life he turns
to her as much for a fix as for emotional or physical comfort.
At times, this novel-inspired-by-fact seems like a
collection of vignettes from these two troubled lives.
MacManus rarely dates the scenes, so it's difficult to tell
what year the story started and whether back-to-back scenes
are days, months or even years apart. For me, that made it
harder to follow the story. Even the most thrilling moments
of his life -- a stand on the barricades and his obscenity
trial -- are plodding, as Baudelaire whines and dopes his way
through his life.
BLACK VENUS is not for everyone. It has frank, but not
graphic, descriptions of Baudelaire's unusual sexual
tendencies. Readers who want to know more about the poet and
his work or French history will find it interesting.
For readers who have been drawn to The Paris Wife,
Black Venus captures the artistic scene in the great
French city decades earlier, when the likes of Dumas
and Balzac argued literature in the cafes of the Left Bank.
Amongst the bohemians the young Charles Baudelaire stood
out—dressed impeccably thanks to an inheritance that was
quickly vanishing. Still at work on the poems which he hoped
would make his name, he spent his nights enjoying the
alcohol, opium, and women who filled the seedy streets of
the city.
One woman would catch his eye—a beautiful Haitian cabaret
singer named Jeanne Duval. Their lives would remain
forever intertwined thereafter, and their romance would
inspire his most infamous poems—leading to the banning of
his masterwork Les Fleurs du Mal and a scandalous
public trial for obscenity.
James MacManus' Black Venus recreates the classic
Parisian literary world in vivid detail, complete with not
just an affecting portrait of the famous poet but also his
often misunderstood, much-maligned muse.
A vivid novel of Charles Baudelaire and his lover
Jeanne Duval, the Haitian cabaret singer who inspired
his most famous and controversial poems, set in
nineteenth-century Paris
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