Aloysius Bertrand

author

Aloysius Bertrand

1807–1841

A French Romantic writer remembered as a pioneer of prose poetry, he left behind work that helped open a new path in nineteenth-century literature. His best-known book, Gaspard de la Nuit, was published after his death and later became especially famous for its eerie, dreamlike imagination.

1 Audiobook

Gaspard de la nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot

Gaspard de la nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot

by Aloysius Bertrand

About the author

Born Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand on April 20, 1807, in Ceva, then part of Piedmont, he became known by the pen name Aloysius Bertrand. He was a French poet, playwright, and journalist associated with the Romantic movement.

Bertrand is best known for Gaspard de la Nuit, a collection of prose poems published posthumously in 1842. The book is often described as a landmark in French prose poetry, and his work has also been seen as an important precursor to later Symbolist writing.

He died young, on April 29, 1841, in Paris. Though his life was brief, his writing had a lasting influence, and Gaspard de la Nuit remains the work for which he is most widely remembered.