Baudelaire, Désiré Nisard et Lucain

This article takes into consideration the interest that Baudelaire vowed to Lucan and his unfinished masterpiece, On the Civil War or Pharsalia. This predilection places the poet in relation to the Latinists of his time, who, for the most part, hold Lucan in suspicion, by opposing him the epic clarity of Virgil. Baudelaire argues especially with Désiré Nisard, champion of conservative criticism, that assimilates the authors of his time to the authors of Latinity.