author
Aloysius Bertrand
1807–1841
A pioneer of the prose poem, this French Romantic writer left behind a dreamlike body of work that shaped later Symbolist and Surrealist literature. Best known for Gaspard de la Nuit, he turned brief, vivid scenes into something strange, musical, and unforgettable.
1 Audiobook
Gaspard de la nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot
by Aloysius Bertrand
About the author
Born Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand in Ceva, Piedmont, on April 20, 1807, he grew up largely in Dijon and wrote under the name Aloysius Bertrand. He worked as a poet, playwright, and journalist, and is now widely remembered as one of the first major writers to bring the prose poem into French literature.
His best-known work, Gaspard de la Nuit, was published after his death in 1842. Its richly imagined medieval and fantastical scenes became enormously influential, helping open the way for later poets associated with Symbolism and, later still, Surrealism.
Bertrand died in Paris on April 29, 1841, at just thirty-four. Though his life was short, his reputation grew steadily afterward, and his writing remains important for readers interested in the beginnings of modern poetic prose.