Artificial Paradises was the only book of which Baudelaire repeatedly declared that there was “nothing to add or omit.” This judgment, so unusual for him, reflects the awareness of an immense literary achievement, after a long and profound maturation of ideas. Through the analysis of artificial stimuli, Baudelaire achieves his broadest and richest exposition of the artistic world, from the angle of the formation and meaning of images; in terms of form, the work contains some of the most beautiful pages ever written.