Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval, byNadar
Born	Gérard Labrunie (1808-05-22)22 May 1808 Paris, France
Died	26 January 1855(1855-01-26)(aged 46) Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Essayist, poet, translator, travel writer
Notable work	Voyage en Orient(1851) Les Filles du feu(1854),Aurélia(1855)
Movement	Romanticism

Gérard de Nerval(French:[ʒeʁaʁdənɛʁval];22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855), thepen nameof the French writer, poet, and translatorGérard Labrunie,was a French essayist, poet, translator, and travel writer. He was a major figure during the era ofFrench romanticism,and best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collectionLes Filles du feu(The Daughters of Fire), which included the novellaSylvieand the poem "El Desdichado".Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, includingKlopstock,Schiller,BürgerandGoethe.His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influencedMarcel Proust.His last novella,Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie,influencedAndré BretonandSurrealism.

Biography

Early life

Gérard Labrunie was born in Paris on 22 May 1808.His mother, Marie Marguerite Antoinette Laurent, was the daughter of a clothing salesman,and his father, Étienne Labrunie, was a young doctor who had volunteered to serve as a medic in the army underNapoleon.

In June 1808, soon after Gérard's birth, Étienne was drafted. With his young wife in tow, Étienne followed the army on tours of Germany and Austria, eventually settling in a hospital inGłogów.While they travelled East, the Labrunies left their newborn son Gérard in the care of Marie Marguerite's uncle Antoine Boucher, who lived inMortefontaine,a small town in theValoisregion, not far from Paris.On 29 November 1810 Marie Marguerite died before she could return to France.Gérard was two years old. Having buried his wife, Étienne took part in the disastrousFrench invasion of Russia.He was reunited with his son in 1814.

Upon his return to France in 1814, Étienne took his son and moved back to Paris, starting a medical practice at 72 rue Saint-Martin.Gérard lived with his father but often stayed with his great-uncle Boucher in Mortefontaine and with Gérard Dublanc at 2 rue de Mantes (now 2 rue du Maréchal Joffre) inSaint-Germain-en-Laye.(Dublanc, Étienne's uncle, was also Gérard's godfather.)

In 1822 Gérard enrolled at thecollège Charlemagne.This was where he met and befriendedThéophile Gautier.This was also where he began to take poetry more seriously. He was especially drawn to epic poetry. At age 16, he wrote a poem that recounted the circumstances of Napoleon's defeat called "Napoléon ou la France guerrière, élégies nationales".Later, he tried out satire, writing poems that took aim at Prime MinisterVillèle,the Jesuit order, and anti-liberal newspapers likeLa Quotidienne.His writing started to be published in 1826.

At age 19, with minimal knowledge of the German language, he began the ambitious task of translatingGoethe'sFaust.His prose translation appeared in 1828. Despite its many flaws, the translation had many merits, and it did a great deal to establish his poetic reputation.It is the reason whyVictor Hugo,the leader of theRomantic movement in France,felt compelled to have Gérard come to his apartment on 11, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.

Cénacle

In 1829, having received his baccalaureate degree two years late (perhaps because he skipped classes to go for walks and read for pleasure),Gérard was under pressure from his father to find steady employment. He took a job at a notary's office, but his heart was set on literature. WhenVictor Hugoasked him to support his playHernani,under attack from conservative critics suspicious of Romanticism, Gérard was more than happy to join the fight (seeBataille d'Hernani).

Gérard was sympathetic to the liberal and republican atmosphere of the time, and was briefly imprisoned in 1832 for participating in student demonstrations.Gérard set himself two anthology projects: one on German poetry, and one on French poetry.Alexandre DumasandPierre-Sébastien Laurentiearranged a library card for him so he could carry out his research.

The first anthology included translations ofKlopstock,Schiller,BürgerandGoethe,and met with less enthusiasm than his translation ofFaust.The second anthology included poems byRonsard,Joachim du Bellay,Jean-Antoine de Baïf,Guillaume Du BartasandJean-Baptiste Chassignet.

By the fall of 1830, theCénacle,a group created bySainte-Beuveto ensure Victor Hugo's success withHernani,had assembled many famed writers, includingAlfred de Vigny,Alfred de Musset,Charles Nodier,Alexandre DumasandHonoré de Balzac.AfterHernani's success, the Cénacle began to fall apart. At that time a new group appeared: the Petit-Cénacle, created by the sculptorJean Bernard Duseigneur.Gérard attended some of the meetings, which took place in Duseigneur's studio.

Gérard, following Hugo's lead, started to write plays.Le Prince des sotsandLara ou l'expiationwere shown at theThéâtre de l'Odéonand met with positive reviews. He started to use the pseudonym Gérard de Nerval, inspired by the name of a property near Loisy (a village nearVer-sur-Launette,Oise) which had belonged to his family.

Work with Dumas

In January 1834, Nerval's maternal grandfather died and he inherited around 30,000 francs. That autumn, he headed to southern France and then travelled to Florence, Rome and Naples. On his return in 1835, he moved in with a group of Romantic artists (includingCamille Rogier). In May of that year, he createdLe Monde Dramatique,a luxurious literary journal on which he squandered his inheritance. Debt-ridden, he finally sold it in 1836. Getting his start in journalism, he travelled to Belgium with Gautier from July to September.

In 1837,Piquillowas shown at the Opéra-Comique. Despite Nerval's work on the project, Dumas' was the only name on the libretto.Jenny Colonplayed the main role. Nerval may have fallen in love with the actress. Some specialists claim that his unrequited love for her is what inspired many of the female figures that appear in his writing, including the Virgin Mary, Isis, the queen of Saba. Other experts disagree with this biographical analysis.

Despite Dumas' refusal to let him take credit for his work, Nerval continued to collaborate with Dumas on plays. In the summer of 1838, he travelled with Dumas to Germany to work onLéo Burckart,which eventually premiered at theThéâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martinon 16 April 1839, six days after the premiere of another play the pair worked on together calledL'Alchimiste.In November 1839, Nerval travelled to Vienna, where he met the pianistMarie Pleyelat the French embassy.

First nervous breakdowns

Back in France in March 1840, Nerval took over Gautier's column atLa Presse.After publishing a third edition ofFaustin July, including a preface and fragments ofSecond Faust,he travelled to Belgium in October. On 15 DecemberPiquillopremiered in Brussels, where Nerval crossed paths with Jenny Colon and Marie Pleyel once again.

After a first nervous breakdown on 23 February 1841, he was cared for at the Sainte-Colombe Borstal ( "maison de correction" ). On 1 MarchJules Janinpublished an obituary for Nerval in theJournal des Débats.After a second nervous breakdown, Nerval was housed in Docteur Esprit Blanche's clinic in Montmartre, where he remained from March to November.

Travels

On 22 December 1842, Nerval set off for the Near East, travelling toAlexandria,Cairo,Beirut,Constantinople,MaltaandNaples.Back in Paris in 1843, he began to publish articles about his trip in 1844. HisVoyage en Orientappeared in 1851.

Between 1844 and 1847, Nerval travelled to Belgium, the Netherlands, and London, producingtravel writing.At the same time, he wrote novellas and opera librettos and translated poems by his friendHeinrich Heine,publishing a selection of translations in 1848. His last years were spent in dire financial and emotional straits. Following his doctor Emile Blanche's advice, he tried to purge himself of his intense emotions in his writing. This is when he composed some of his best works.

La rue de la vieille lanterne: The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval,byGustave Doré,1855

Nerval had a pet lobster named Thibault, which he walked at the end of a blue silk ribbon in thePalais-Royalin Paris.According toThéophile Gautier,Nerval said:

Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog?...or a cat, or a gazelle, or a lion, or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don't bark, and they don't gnaw upon one'smonadicprivacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn't mad.

In his later years, Nerval also took an interest in socialism, tracing its origins to the eighteenth-centuryIlluministsand esoteric authors such asNicolas-Edme Rétif.

Suicide

Increasingly poverty-stricken and disoriented, he took his own life during the night of 26 January 1855, by hanging himself from the bar of a cellar window in the rue de la Vieille-Lanterne, a narrow lane in a squalid section of Paris.He left a brief note to his aunt: "Don't wait up for me this evening, for the night will be black and white."It is to be noted that, just like in English, in French anuit blanche(literal translation: a white night) is a sleepless night.

The poetCharles Baudelaireobserved that Nerval had "delivered his soul in the darkest street that he could find." The discoverers of his body were puzzled by the fact that his hat was still on his head. The last pages of his manuscript forAurélia ou le rêve et la viewere found in a pocket of his coat. After a religious ceremony at the Notre-Dame cathedral (which was granted despite his suicide because of his troubled mental state), he was buried in thePère Lachaise Cemeteryin Paris, at the expense of his friendsThéophile GautierandAr sắc ne Houssaye,who publishedAuréliaas a book later that year.

The complete works of Gérard de Nerval are published in three volumes byGallimardin the collectionBibliothèque de la Pléiade.

Assessments and legacy

Goethe read Nerval's translation ofFaustand called it "very successful", even claiming that he preferred it to the original.

The composerHector Berliozrelied on Nerval's translation of Faust for his workLa damnation de Faust,which premiered in 1846.

In 1867, Nerval's friendThéophile Gautier(1811–1872) wrote a touching reminiscence of him in "La Vie de Gérard" which was included in hisPortraits et Souvenirs Littéraires(1875).

ForMarcel Proust,Nerval was one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century. Proust especially admiredSylvie's exploration of time lost and regained, which would become one of Proust's deepest interests and the dominant theme of his magnum opusIn Search of Lost Time.Later,André Bretonnamed Nerval a precursor ofSurrealistart, which drew on Nerval's forays into the significance of dreams. For his part,Antonin Artaudcompared Nerval's visionary poetry to the work ofHölderlin,NietzscheandVan Gogh.

In 1945, at the end of the Second World War and after a long illness, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalystCarl Jungdelivered a lecture in Zürich on Nerval'sAuréliawhich he regarded as a work of "extraordinary magnitude". Jung described Nerval's memoir as a cautionary tale (the protagonist cannot profit psychologically from his own lucidity and profound insights), and he validates Nerval's visionary experience as a genuine encounter with thecollective unconsciousandanima mundi.

Umberto Ecoin hisSix Walks in the Fictional Woodscalls Nerval'sSylviea "masterpiece" and analysed it to demonstrate the use of temporal ambiguity.

Henry Millercalled Nerval an "extraordinary French poet" and included him among a group of exemplary translators: "[i]n English we have yet to produce a poet who is able to do for Rimbaud whatBaudelairedid forPoe's verse, or Nerval forFaust,orMorelandLarbaudforUlysses".Literary criticHarold Bloomcalled him "a pure instance ofFaustianman "but judged that" the sorrow of his unmothered and unloved existence destroyed him before "his genius could" fus[e] all the visionary's contraries together. "

Twentieth century French composerDenise Rogerused Nerval's texts for some of her songs.

The English rock bandTrafficincluded the jazz-rock track "Dream Gerrard" in their 1974 albumWhen the Eagle Flies.Lyrics are known to be mainly written byVivian Stanshallafter reading Nerval's biography.

There are streets named after Nerval in the towns ofSaint-Denis,Béthisy-Saint-Pierre,Crépy-en-Valois,Creil,Mortefontaine,OthisandSenlis.

Selected works

• Les Faux Saulniers(The Salt Smugglers,1850) – published over several weeks inLe National,a daily newspaper. He later incorporated some of this material inLes Filles du feu(inAngelique) and inLes Illuminés(inL'Abbé de Bucquoy).
• Voyage en Orient(1851) – an account of the author's voyages to Germany, Switzerland and Vienna in 1839 and 1840, and to Egypt and Turkey in 1843. Includes several pieces already published, includingLes Amours de Vienne,which first appeared in theRevue de Parisin 1841. One of the author's major works.
• La Bohème Galante(1852) – a collection of short prose works and poems including some of the set he later calledOdelettes.Dedicated and addressed toAr sắc ne Houssaye.
• Les Nuits d'Octobre(1852) – a small but distinguished collection of essays describing Paris at night.
• Lorely, souvenirs d'Allemagne(1852) – an account of his travels along the Rhine, also in Holland and Belgium. It includes the full-length playLéo Burckart,under the title "Scènes de la Vie Allemande".
• Les Illuminés(1852) – a collection of six biographical narratives in the form of novellas or essays.
• Sylvie(1853) – described by Nerval as "un petit roman" ( "a small novel" ), it is the most celebrated of his works.
• Petits Châteaux de Bohême(1853) – a collection of prose works and poetry, including the short playCorilla,which was subsequently included inLes Filles du feu,theOdelettes,and several of the sonnets later published asThe Chimeras.
• Les Filles du feu(1854) – a volume of short stories or idylls, including the previously publishedSylvie,along with a sequence of twelve sonnets,The Chimeras
• Pandora(1854) – another Fille du Feu, not finished in time for inclusion in that volume, written in the style ofSylvieand set in Vienna. Also known asLa Pandora,often subtitledSuite des Amours de Vienne.
• Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie(1855, posthumously) – a fantasy-ridden interior autobiography as referred to by Gérard de Nerval
• Promenades et Souvenirs(1854–1855) – a collection of eight essays after the manner ofLes Nuits d'Octobre,describing theSaint-Germain neighbourhoodof the author's childhood and youth. The last, "Chantilly", includes a portrait similar to those inLes Filles du feu.

Quotes

From 'El Desdichado' in “The Chimeras," fromSylvie & The Chimeras:

I am the tenebrous, – the widower, – the disconsolate

Prince of Aquitaine in a ruined tower:

My only star is dead, – and my lute, constellated,

Bears the black sun of Melancholy.

In the dark night of the tomb, you who consoled me,

Grant me the Posillipo and the sea of Italy,

The flower that so pleased my heart which is desolate,

And the trellis where vines with roses intertwine.

See also

• List of people who died by suicide by hanging

Bibliography

Works in French

• Œuvres complètes.3 vols. Eds. Jean Guillaume & Claude Pichois. Paris: La Pléiade-Gallimard, 1984. Print.
• Les filles du feu/Les Chimères.Ed. Bertrand Marchal. Paris: Folio-Gallimard, 2005. Print.ISBN978-2070314799
• Aurélia – La Pandora – Les Nuits d'Octobre – Promenades et souvenirs.Ed. Jean-Nicolas Illouz. Paris: Folio-Gallimard, 2005. Print.ISBN978-2070314768

English translations

• The Women of Cairo,trans. Conrad Elphinstone. Harcourt, Brace, 1930. Later reprinted asJourney to the Orient.New York: Antipodes Press, 2012.ISBN978-0988202603
• Aurélia & Other Writings,trans. Geoffrey Wagner, Robert Duncan, Marc Lowenthal. New York: Exact Change, 1996.ISBN978-1878972095
• Selected Writings,trans. Richard Sieburth. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.ISBN978-0140446012
• The Illuminated, or The Precursors of Socialism: Tales and Portraits,trans. Peter Valente. Wakefield Press, 2022.ISBN978-1-93966-374-0
• Sylvie & The Chimeras,trans. Richard Robinson. Portland, OR: Sunny Lou Publishing, 2023.ISBN978-1-95539-240-2
• Small Castles of Bohemia,trans. Napoleon Jeffries. Wakefield Press, forthcoming.

Biography

• Album Nerval.Eds. Éric Buffetaud and Claude Pichois. Paris: La Pléiade-Gallimard, 1993.ISBN2070112829.
• Cogez, Gérard.Gérard de Nerval.Paris: Folio-Gallimard, 2010. Print.ISBN978-2070338795
• Gautier, Théophile.Histoire du romantisme/Quarante portraits romantiques.Ed. Adrien Goetz. Paris: Folio-Gallimard, 2011. Print.ISBN978-2070412730
• Gautier, Théophile.(1900)."Gérard de Nerval."In:The Complete Works of Théophile Gautier,Vol. VIII. London: The Athenæum Press, pp. 96–116.
• Jones, Robert Emmet (1974).Gerard de Nerval.New York: Twayne Publishers.
• Petitfils, Pierre,Nerval,Paris, Julliard, 1986, coll.Les VivantsISBN2-260-00484-9
• Sowerby, Benn.The disinherited; the life of Gérard de Nerval, 1808–1855.New York: New York University Press, 1974. Print.

Criticism (books)

• Ahearn, Edward J. "Visionary Insanity: Nerval'sAurélia."Visionary Fictions: Apocalyptic Writing from Blake to the Modern Age.New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Print.
• Jeanneret, Michel.La lettre perdue: Ecriture et folie dans l'œuvre de Nerval.Paris: Flammarion, 1978. Print.
• Gordon, Rae Beth (2014). "The Enchanted Hand: Schlegel's Arabesque in Nerval." In:Ornament, Fantasy, and Desire in Nineteenth-Century French Literature.Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Jung, Carl Gustav(1945/2015).On Psychological and Visionary Art: Notes from C. G. Jung's Lecture on Gérard de Nerval's "Aurélia".Ed. Craig E Stephenson, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Rhodes, Solomon A. (1951).Gérard de Nerval, 1808–1855: Poet, Traveler, Dreamer.New York: Philosophical Library.
• Symons, Arthur(1919)."Gérard de Nerval."In:The Symbolist Movement in Literature.New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, pp. 69–95.
• Lang, Andrew(1892)."Gérard de Nerval."In:Letters on Literature.London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co., pp. 147–156.

Criticism (journal articles)

• Blackman, Maurice (1986–87). "Byron and the First Poem of Gérard de Nerval,"Nineteenth-Century French Studies,Vol. XV, No. 1/2, pp. 94–107.
• Bray, Patrick M. (2006). "Lost in the Fold: Space and Subjectivity in Gérard de Nerval's 'Généalogie' and Sylvie,"French Forum,Vol. XXXI, No. 2, pp. 35–51.
• Carroll, Robert C. (1976). "Illusion and Identity: Gérard de Nerval and Rétif's 'Sara',"Studies in Romanticism,Vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 59–80.
• Carroll, Robert C. (1976). "Gérard de Nerval: Prodigal Son of History,"Nineteenth-Century French Studies,Vol. IV, No. 3, pp. 263–273.
• DuBruck, Alfred (1974–1975). "Nerval and Dumas in Germany,"Nineteenth-Century French Studies,Vol. III, No. 1/2, pp. 58–64.
• Duckworth, Colin (1965). "Eugène Scribe and Gérard de Nerval 'Celui Qui Tient la Corde Nous Étrangle',"The Modern Language Review,Vol. LX, No. 1, pp. 32–40.
• Knapp, Bettina L. (1974–75). "Gérard de Nerval's 'Isis' and the Cult of the Madonna,"Nineteenth-Century French Studies,Vol. III, No. 1/2, pp. 65–79.
• Knapp, Bettina L. (1976). "Gérard de Nerval: The Queen of Sheba and the Occult,"Nineteenth-Century French Studies,Vol. IV, No. 3, pp. 244–257.
• Lang, Andrew(1873)."Gérard de Nerval, 1810–1855,"Fraser's Magazine,Vol. VII, pp. 559–566.
• Mauris, Maurice (1880)."Gérard de Nerval."In:French Men of Letters.New York: D. Appleton and Company, pp. 129–150.
• Moon, H. Kay (1965). "Gerard de Nerval: A Reappraisal,"Brigham Young University Studies,Vol. VII, No. 1, pp. 40–52.
• Rhodes, Solomon A. (1938). "Poetical Affiliations of Gerard de Nerval,"PMLA,Vol. LIII, No. 4, pp. 1157–1171.
• Rhodes, Solomon A. (1949). "The Friendship between Gérard de Nerval and Heinrich Heine,"The French Review,Vol. XXIII, No. 1, pp. 18–27.
• Rinsler, Norma (1963). "Gérard de Nerval, Fire and Ice,"The Modern Language Review,Vol. LVIII, No. 4, pp. 495–499.
• Rinsler, Norma (1963). "Gérard de Nerval's Celestial City and the Chain of Souls,"Studies in Romanticism,Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 87–106.
• Smith, Garnet (1889)."Gérard de Nerval,"The Gentleman's Magazine,Vol. CCLXVI, pp. 285–296.
• Warren, Rosanna (1983). "The 'Last Madness' of Gérard de Nerval,"The Georgia Review,Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, pp. 131–138.

External links

• Media related toGérard de Nervalat Wikimedia Commons

• Works by or aboutGérard de NervalatWikisource
• FrenchWikiquotehas quotations related to:Gérard de Nerval
• Works by Gérard de NervalatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Gérard de NervalatInternet Archive
• Works by Gérard de NervalatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Hieronymo's Mad Againe: On Translating NervalArchived28 March 2013 at theWayback Machineessay byRichard Sieburth,an English translator of Nerval