Charles Nodier

Born in Besançon in 1780, Charles Nodier was a French writer, scholar, and librarian whose influence reached far beyond his own books. He is often remembered as one of the figures who helped open French literature to Romanticism, especially through his love of the fantastic, the gothic, and the strange.

Nodier wrote novels, tales, essays, and literary criticism, and he became known for introducing younger writers to imaginative forms of storytelling, including vampire tales and dream-centered fiction. From 1824 he served as librarian at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris, where his salon became a gathering place for major literary figures of the age.

More than a successful author in the usual sense, he is often valued for the energy he gave to literary life itself. Elected to the Académie française in the 1830s, he remained an admired presence in French letters until his death in Paris in 1844.