Black Venus
α’αααΈααααα βα’αα‘α·α ααααΌαα·αααα
Inspiring Baudelaire's most infamous poems - leading to the banning of his masterwork, Les Fleurs du Mal, and a scandalous public trial for obscenity - Duval becomes Baudelaire's muse, the catalyst for a legacy spanning centuries. Their volatile and passionate affair explodes through the Parisian literary scene but, as the ever-more fractious world catches up with them, the strength of their love will be tested to the end.
Unfolding among the bars and salons during revolutionary times, Black Venus is an intoxicating story of love and betrayal in which drugs, absinthe and lust prove the making, and the destruction, of a great poet.
α’αααΈβα’ααααα·αααα
James MacManus is the managing director of The Times Literary Supplement. After studying at St Andrews University he began his career in journalism at the Daily Express in Manchester. Joining the Guardian in 1972, he later became Paris, and then Africa and Middle East Correspondent. His acclaimed debut work, Ocean Devil (2008), about the life of a young English adventurer in China was made into a film starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Children of the Silk Road. James' first novel, On the Broken Shore, was published in 2010. This was followed by Black Venus (2013) the story of the French poet Charles Baudelaire and his mistress Jeanne Duval, now in paperback. He lives quietly in Dulwich, London.
