The Pagan School

"‘The Pagan School‘ is an essay by the French writer Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1852, it is critical of the neopaganism of its time, which existed in explicit form among supporters of the French Revolution of 1848. From this starting point, Baudelaire criticised a broader trend of striving for material beauty and sensory pleasure, which he said would leave people unsatisfied and make it hard to maintain relationships. ... ‘The Pagan School’ is in line with Baudelaire's aversion to pantheistic views and contains a specifically modern rejection of classicism. It addresses the modern idea of the god Pan as an embodiment of revolutionary momentum, which Baudelaire viewed as artificial. ...”

Baudelaire preferred Honoré Daumier's comical visions of ancient history and described Sappho (pictured here by Daumier) as a "patroness of hysterical women".

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