Why was Charles Baudelaire’s reputation greater after his death than during his lifetime?

During his lifetime, Charles Baudelaire’s reputation was severely hindered by the 1857 legal condemnation of his seminal poetry collection, Les Fleurs du mal. The work was branded as a byword for depravity and obscenity, leading to a trial, fines, and the official banning of several poems, which cast him as a "doomed dissident" rather than a celebrated artist. By the end of his life, he faced financial ruin, physical decline, and the frustration of seeing much of his work out of print or unpublished.12

His posthumous reputation grew significantly because he was recognized as a foundational figure who bridged Romanticism and modernism. While he was alive, his innovative style and "startling themes" were often misunderstood or censored. After his death, however, the emerging leaders of the Symbolist movement—who had attended his funeral as his followers—championed his work. He was eventually hailed for his unique ability to represent the complexity of modern man and for his immense influence on 20th-century poets, including T.S. Eliot and Rainer Maria Rilke.312