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Appearing as early as the epistolary preface, Baudelaire’s remarks on feminine authorship can be seen throughout his text. While there has been much speculation about the identity of the female destinateur identified only as J.G.F., it has never been conclusively revealed. Although I would love to solve this mystery, I do not believe it would be the best use of my time. However, I would like to emphasize that Baudelaire’s later descriptions of De Quincey add another level of intrigue to the question. Baudelaire presents the first unabridged translation from De Quincey’s work with the following assertion: “Il est bon d’ailleurs que le lecteur puisse de temps en temps goûter par lui-même la manière pénétrante et féminine de l’auteur.” (66) [“Besides, it will be good for the reader to enjoy the penetrating and feminine form of the author at first hand.”] I posit that this consideration of De Quincey’s writing as feminine opens up the possibility that the preface is not addressed to a woman after all. Although, not the focus of my work here, a closer examination of his reading of the English author as feminine may shed supplemental light on the identity of the addressee. Unfortunately, Baudelaire never explicitly defines his use of “feminine” in this context. However, there are several indications that he is using it to refer to hysteria. In “Le poème du haschisch,” he states that the “temperament féminin” of the patient prevents her from properly analyzing the experience of her intoxication (Le theatre de Seraphin). Originally published in 1858, this usage predates Jean-Martin Charcot’s medical research on hysteria by twenty-two years.