Charles Baudelaire's style involves pursuing beauty in what is evil. In Baudelaire's case, the evil isn't original sin, Satan, immorality or deliberate harm. Instead, it refers to weariness, suffering, anguish, melancholy and torment. The poet expresses all these inherent human emotions and he constantly searches for deliverance. This is a result of trauma in his childhood including the death of his aged father, the remarriage of his young mother, and the existence of his rigid and strict step father Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick. The feeling of loss for his father is an important factor influencing the life of Baudelaire. To replace his mother with other women, he met many prostitutes, especially a Jew named Sarah la louchette, but also Jeanne Duval, Marie Daubran, Mme Sabatier, la Sisina etc. Among them, Mme Sabatier was the special woman who received anonymous letters and several poems from 1852 to 1854. Most of these poems were included in Les Fleurs du Mal. Baudelaire, by a letter revealing his identity in 1857, mentioned that the other additional poems were dedicated to her. But there is no direct correlation between these additional poems and Mme Sabatier. However, Experts on Baudelaire, such as Jacques Crépet and Antoine Adam, refer to them as the "cycle of Mme Sabatier." The purpose of this study is to examine the identity of Mme Sabatier, to comprehend the inner structure of Les Fleurs du Mal and to understand the intentions of Baudelaire by analyzing the "cycle of Mme Sabatier" made by Baudelaire experts.
First, her character, her social status in the Second Empire and some works of art which portrayed her, particularly Woman Bitten by a Snake, by Auguste Clésinger (1847) and Woman with the dog, by Gustave Ricard (1850) were examined in this dissertation. In addition, two salons where she and Baudelaire had met and interacted with one another, namely Boissard's salon in the Hotel Pimodan and Mme Sabatier's salon on 4 rue Frochot, were examined. Although Mme Sabatier was a French courtesan, she was also a muse for many authors and artists such as Théophile Gautier, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire and the painter Ernest Messonier. These two salons were places of creativity where most of the intellectuals of that times in Paris, such as artists, musicians, writers and art historians were frequented.
Secondly, all the anonymous letters and poems sent by Baudelaire to the host of the popular salon from 1852 to 1854 as well as additional poems which were published in Les Fleurs du Mal in 1857 dedicated to her were analyzed in the dissertation. The intention of the poet was the idealization of the Mme Sabatier as an angel and immortal goddess. While doing so, Baudelaire employed the perfume which was generally considered being associated to Jeanne Duval.
Third, the concept of the 'cycle of Mme Sabatier', which was suggested for the first time by Jacques Crépet, was examined from various angles in the dissertation. This cycle was based on an 1857 letter in which Baudelaire revealed his identity after the publication of Les Fleurs du Mal. In conclusion, it is necessary to redefine the 'cycle of Mme Sabatier' as the 'group of poems concerning Mme Sabatier'. This accepts on one hand the opinion of Jacques Crépet for the number of works to be included and on the other hand Claude Pichois' concept of 'spiritual love'. This group of poems consists of three phases : writing the poetry, sending the letters and poems anonymously, and finally including and arranging these poems into the edition of Les Fleurs du Mal in order to mystify and idealize Mme Sabatier.