Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a French poet, essayist, and cultural critic whose work reshaped modern literature. <p/>His landmark collection, The Flowers of Evil, brought a new intensity to poetic language--introspective, decadent, and defiant. Restless and often at odds with his time, Baudelaire was among the first writers to take the modern city as his true subject, and remains one of its most enduring interpreters.