<p>The poems of The Flowers of Evil were written in Paris at a time of revolution and<br><br>accelerating change ? the beginning of mass culture, the rise of consumerism and the<br><br>middle-class, the radical redevelopment of the city by Haussmann ? and they provide many parallels with the malaise and uncertainties of contemporary capitalist societies.<br>Here we find poems about love (and love-hate), birds and beasts, Paris scenes and street p...