Gérard de Nerval

Born in Paris in 1808 and originally named Gérard Labrunie, he adopted the name Gérard de Nerval and built a reputation as a poet, essayist, and translator. He moved in the lively literary world of 19th-century France and became especially known for introducing French readers to Goethe through his translation of Faust.

His work often brings together travel, folklore, dreams, and personal feeling. Books such as Les Filles du feu and Aurélia are remembered for their delicate, uncanny tone and for the way they blur the line between inner life and outer reality.

Nerval struggled for years with mental illness, an experience that shaped some of his most powerful writing. He died in 1855, but his work continued to influence later writers, and he is often seen as an important forerunner of both Symbolism and Surrealism.