This book is absolutely gorgeous, the art is captivating and enthralling drawing you in. It is honestly what kept me engaged enough to keep going. But the narrative writing for this was abysmal it drug on and on, to the point it honestly became a detriment overall. I would have honestly probably enjoyed it more overall if I'd just gone through just taking in the art then trying to process the writing. Which is disappointing.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

So I don’t know much about Baudelaire. I’ve never read his poetry, nor have I had any interest in it, but the art style intrigued me and I wanted to learn more about him. However, I don’t think this is the best way to go about it.

So, for starters, I loved the art. The style is moody and evocative and sensuality bleeds from the page, and I think the art is the only thing worth picking this book up for. The imagery is gorgeous and weird, but without alienating people for being too “artsy.”

However, when paired with the actual content of the novel, it’s the only thing keeping it afloat. Baudelaire’s life and relationship had storytelling potential, but it got confusing. The method of narrative didn’t help, being told in an epistolary fashion, but the you have text so tiny it was hard to read. It became frustrating trying to figure out what was being said, and I gave up many times just to adore the art work.

Also, I haven’t done much research on Baudelaire’s lover Jeanne Duval, but I got the sense that most of the relationship depicted was made up. I get there had to be liberties taken, but it struggled to find the line between factual and fiction.

First, honesty. I have no idea who the famous French poet, Charles Baudelaire is, nor what made him so famous. Poetry is not something I read often and I find some of it way too flowery for me.
As romantic as someone waxing on about your skin may be...I would burst out laughing.

So onto the Graphic novel that happens to be about Charles Baudelaire and his mistress Jeanne Duval.
Yslaire’s graphic novel mixes fact and fiction to tell the tale of the romance between the French poet, the Haitian mulatto woman with whom he maintained a long-term relationship. Most of what happened between them are unknown so the Author would have had to use some poetic license with the story.

Based on what I read her, the relationship did not lack passion, and some of the more adult drawings would attest to just how passionate.

Baudelaire spends hours waxing eloquently about Duval’s skin color, which seemed to be on the dark end of the spectrum. While Duval comes off looking more like a prostitute or a gold-digger. She seems to always have a man leaving her chambers just as Baudelaire is arriving. Yet that does not make her unwilling to have sex with him.

I would mention that this graphic comic has large amounts of nudity and very graphic sexual images. So if you are offended by such things, or just don't need that close of a look at a woman’s sex, you may want to skip this. They do serve a purpose, more so than just being gratuitous images.

The art was beautifully done, and the story was interesting simply because I had no knowledge of it, but the writing was a bit on the slow and plodding side.
Thanks to @Netgalley, Europe Comics, and Yslaire, for the chance to read this arc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Synopsis: This historical memoir takes a poetic, passionate look into 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire’s affair with Creole mistress Jeanne Duval.


Disclaimer: This being part erotica, expect some graphic descriptions ahead try as I might to tastefully present it.

My Thoughts: Plot (4/5) – While ample information on Baudelaire’s life is available, Jeanne Duval has become more of a figure mythologized as Black Venus in his body of work with little else known. Therefore, this book takes several creative liberties with its interpretation of their relationship, making this mostly a historical dramatization which was a sufficient premise for me given how many works there are focusing on mysterious figures, a subject I tend to find fascinating.

Pacing (2/5) – This is where most of my problems lie. Throughout much of the narrative, there are paragraphs of waxing poetic from Baudelaire’s flowery monologuing to the continual epistolary exchanges between the characters, the latter of which’s perspective became confusing to discern. The writing itself is articulated with descriptive beauty galore and would have been perfect in prose, but it clogs up so much of the panels’ space that it feels more distracting and grueling to read through considering how much of the story is conveyed through visual metaphor.

Art (5/5) – I would consider this part the book’s strongest suit. Yslaire masterfully used his thinly sketched lineart and harsh, fuzzy colors to convey a dreary tone that complemented the actions well. The hallucinatory imagery was particularly a marvel to the eyes, amplifying the symbolism throughout. My favorite instance of this is how Baudelaire’s penis is depicted as a serpent insatiable in its voracious lust for pleasure while Duval is juxtaposed to a wild leopard which tragically reflected upon how he views her as a person. That is to say, a savage beast which he has tamed into civility with Western assimilationism, an ethnocentric bar which a lot of society still sets to this day.


Final Thoughts: Mademoiselle Baudelaire is an ambitious project which, while successful on an artistic level and thematic level, was heavily bogged down by its bloated text thus leaving an average impression overall. However, if this is something you can get past, you might enjoy this graphic novel.


Thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for providing me with my first advance ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

Surprisingly this wasn’t a good read for me. I dislike paragraphs of prose in my graphic novels. Obviously this is my personal preference but i feel it distracts from the artwork. The artwork in this book is whimsical, and beautiful but also very dark in some places with depictions of slavery and lurid sex scenes. I am no prude but I am not sure what the nudity and vaginas added to the story? Then there was also the actual story and I found I just couldn’t engage with it. I think this is just not for me.

Well-intentioned story about Charles Baudelaire and his mistress, who in being a person of colour was someone to be frowned upon. Some of this is too, for it wants to use its (admittedly superlative) artistic craft to have a lascivious, exotic fantasy – and yet plods away, dropping the prologue with the fabulous beasts in its imagery, and the leads as gargoyle-type fallen angels, and chunters on about the children before she gives us a wordy monologue for her back-story. Certainly every page drips with wonderful art, but I don't think the fantasy fantasy side of things gels with the story she has to offer, despite the more wacky visions he has, and a lot of the sexual fantasy side is just as much a "phwoar look at the boobies on blackie!!" attitude it's trying to show as an archaic problem she suffered with. Also, much of his society life is really not interesting, so we're left with the fact that no book on this earth would fail to gain something from having art like this does.

I will come clean with the fact that prior to reading this, I was largely unaware of the works and life of acclaimed French poet, Charles Baudelaire. Truthfully, I am not a big poetry reader, so while I’ve seen his name, I can’t say if I’ve ever read a word he’s ever written. This is a fact I really should rectify! I see that he was a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and if his poems are in any way influenced, I may have to check out his works. So how has this man, dead many moons ago, come across my mind? That is thanks to the new biographical graphic novel Mademoiselle Baudelaire by Yslaire, a new book from Europe Comics. This graphic novel mostly focuses on Baudelaire’s tumultuous relationship with a young Haitian actress and dancer named Jeanne Duval. Duval was an enigmatic figure in history, as many can’t even pinpoint exactly when she passed away, much less how she felt about various people that this book talks about. Yslaire does his best to use what known facts about the couple are out there and recreate this time period in history to the best of his ability. Granted, much more is known about Charles than his creole mistress, so one can assume most of the dialogue and situations are created with some sort of artistic liberty.

“Baudelaire: poète maudit, enfant terrible, lyric genius, crippling perfectionist. Bereft of a father at age five, he spent his days squandering the former’s fortune on prostitutes and paintings, opium and alcohol, finery and laundry bills for his impeccably white dandy’s collars. He loved a woman and gave her syphilis. This is her story. Muse, mulatto, mistress, mystery… little was known of Jeanne in her day, and even less remembered since. Yslaire pays tribute to a brimstone-and-hellfire affair from the annals of literature, two misunderstood souls who in their mutual misunderstanding afforded each other what little solace they found in life.”

The book is done in an epistolary novel style, using letters written from Duvall to Charles’ mother upon his death trying to make a case for why she is claiming part of his inheritance, and to let the mother in on details of their relationship. Perhaps this is the only real fault I can find in this book, as it doesn’t make much sense as to why she would recount his childhood to somebody that knows better than she, or intimate details of their sex life to a man’s own mother. Through this motif, however, we also see much of the writer’s aforementioned past, his sad upbringing and his tendency towards the macabre that made him who he was. Baudelaire seemed, if this account is historical, to not value women too much – simply seeing them as pieces of meat to be fondled. We see his interactions with many “ladies of the night” wherein he is borderline abusive to them with his words, but frequents their establishment often. It seems the only woman he is truly smitten with is Duval, whom he seems to have an almost unhealthy attraction to, seemingly more of a fetish than anything else.

If you have not already gathered, this book is not intended for younger readers, and contains multiple scenes of an explicit sexual nature. At this time, it seems like most self-described “bohemians” apparently did much else but frequent houses of ill repute and smoke opium, so we get a lot of that here. To me, it never crossed the line into being gratuitous seeing that most of the images were done in an artistic manner, many were stylized, and others held visual allusions and metaphors within the frames rather than overt depictions of intercourse. If you are rather prudish, or do not want to experience anything of an erotic nature, I’d recommend sitting this one out. All of the passion soon ends in the story as they both become sick with “Cupid’s Disease”.

I think I was most taken aback by how much syphilis ravaged both Charles and Jeanne throughout the later part of the story. At one point, we see an aged Charles talking to one of his friends, to which he remarks “you’re 40 now…” when he clearly looks much much older. As somebody just shy of that age mark, it made me sit there and think of my own mortality a bit, seeing a man so clearly on death’s door and somewhat young. Left untreated, the ailment destroyed both of them, making them have trouble walking, experience delirium, and even have suicidal thoughts. Yes, Charles starts taking things like Mercury and Laudanum, but neither of which cures in any way. Both blame the other for being the progenitor of their predicament, and it causes them to drift farther and farther away until they live a life of embittered resentment towards each other. Charles even becomes religious, but drifts into an odd version Satanism to try to soothe his soul.

All-in-all, I enjoyed Mademoiselle Baudelaire by Yslaire quite a bit, and it has intrigued me on the writings of Charles Baudelaire as a whole. It’s not a very happy story, and at times the characters can be fairly unlikeable, but its a great way to get into the minds of members of the French artists of the mid nineteenth century, so for that I will give it props. I’m used to getting various volumes of shorter works from Europe Comics, so being able to sink my teeth into a full-on graphic novel was a nice change of pace. If you are a fan of history, or learning about French social life in that time period you can not find a better comic to get into, even if it’s separated a bit from reality, the story is still very good.

This graphic novel was a fictionalization of the story of Charles Baudelaire and his mistress, who is implied to be of unconfirmed Caribbean origin. As I am unfamiliar with Baudelaire's biography, I am uncertain how parallel to the truth the story was, but it made me curious about their story and want to investigate further. The illustrator did a beautiful job depicting the characters accurately and with emotion when compared to photos of the artists from the era. I appreciated the perspective of Baudelaire as a less than admirable individual and that his genius was propelled and aided by a woman of color, in opposition to traditional histories ascribing all credit to the white man who gave himself the byline. There was quite a bit of Modernist name-dropping and assumptions of foreknowledge, which made portions of the book unclear. While some of the graphic nudity served a clear purpose illustrating Baudelaire's obsession and the allure of Jeanne for him, showing us the way he saw her, other images seemed gratuitous or for shock value making it a difficult inclusion in a library collection. Overall, I thought it was beautifully illustrated, the story unclear at times, and was a perfect taste of Charles and Jeanne's story that makes you want to know more.

This graphic novel mixes fact and fiction to tell the tale of the romance between French poet, Charles Baudelaire, and Jeanne Duval, the Haitian mulatto woman with whom he maintained a long-term relationship. The fictional portion of the story is necessitated by the fact that some of the couple’s story is unknown. Much more is known about Baudelaire than Duval, and in terms of what is on record, accounts differ. The relationship was passionate and complex, but it’s hard to say how loving it was. Baudelaire is depicted as fetishizing Duval’s dark skin, and Duval seems like a gold-digger at times.


The bulk of the story is told in an epistolary fashion as a letter from Duval to Baudelaire’s mother after the poet’s death. While the epistolary form seems apropos for creating a tone for historical fiction set during the 19th century when that form was all the rage, it was the source of my only problem with the book. That problem is that some of what’s communicated strains credulity. First, the work is erotic in nature, and it seems unlikely that even the most libertine of women would feel the need to share with a mother what they did with her son. It just feels awkward. Second, there is a fair amount of “as you know, Bob” exposition in the letter. [“As you know, Bob” being shorthand for telling a character something that they would know at least as well as the teller knows, and - in some cases - more so.] This is most clearly seen when the letter talks about a time when Baudelaire was living with his mother, such that it’s not clear how Duval knows this information, but it’s non-sensical for her to act as though the mother wouldn’t know.


Other than that, my view of the book was entirely positive. I found the art was effective and captured the spirit of the time well. There’s large amounts of nudity and graphic sexuality, so if that’s troubling for you, it’s not your kind of book. The prose is just purple enough to lend authenticity to the 19th century epistolary format, but quite readable.


I found the book fascinating and I read it straight through. If you’re interested in the Bohemian life of a womanizing poet / laudanum addict, you’ll definitely find this book compelling.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Mademoiselle Baudelaire by Yslaire is a biographical graphic novel about the woman that Baudelaire loved. Baudelaire is famous, but very few know about Jeanne, the woman he loved. According to the description, she was "muse, mulatto, mistress, mystery… little was known of Jeanne in her day, and even less remembered since." This graphic novel tells us about their relationship from the romance to the sex, to the affairs. Keep in mind that this is a graphic novel for adults, and there is plenty of nudity and sexual content.

Overall, Mademoiselle Baudelaire is a graphic novel about Baudelaire and his muse's relationship, but I think it is missing a tag for "erotica." There were a lot more sex scenes than I expected, even for a graphic novel about a passionate relationship. These were not tasteful sex scenes either, but full-on explicit sex scenes. I wouldn't consider myself to be a prude, but I cannot in good conscience rate this above 2 stars. The only reason this isn't a 1-star review is because I recognize that the artist must have spent a lot of time creating this graphic novel and working on the art. If you're intrigued by the description, you can check out this book, which is available now.