Aurélia and Other Writings
by Gérard de Nerval
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Admired by both Proust and Breton, this nineteenth century book was also the favourite of artist Joseph Cornell. An account of the author's passion for an actress and subsequent descent into madness, AURELIA is a document of dreams, obsessions, and insanity. One of the original bohemians, Nerval was well known in his day for parading a lobster on a blue ribbon through the gardens of the Palais-Royal, and for his suicide (1855), hanging from an apron string he called the garter of the Queen show more of Sheba. show lessTags
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These writings drew me in ways I still can't understand. Each one seemed precious.
Romantic poet Gérard de Nerval is now thirty-three and "Aurélia" tells of his final descent into the hell of madness and death. Gérard still meets his good friends but they do not understand him any more. God is dead. Aurélia, his great love, the most perfect of all women, is dead as well. But has she ever existed ? The state of permanent delirium Gérard is in will lead him to a cemetery first, then to a police station and a mental hospital before he finally takes his own life.
—Guy Bellinger
—Guy Bellinger
Jan 24, 2026English (UK)
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279+ Works 2,684 Members
Gérard de Nerval was the pen name of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essential Romantic French poets. He was born on May 22, 1808, in Paris, France. Nerval first became noted because of his translation of Goethe's Faust (1828). Gérard de Nerval's first nervous breakdown occurred during 1841. In a series show more of novellas, collected as Les Illuminés, ou les précurseurs du socialisme (1852), he described feelings that followed his third breakdown. Increasingly poverty-stricken and disoriented, he committed suicide in 1855, hanging himself from a window grating. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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