Gérard de Nerval Summary

The news of Gérard de Nerval's suicide on 14 January 1855 stunned the literary and artistic community of Paris as had no other writer's death in recent memory. The shock registered by acquainta... Read more

In the following essay, Warren surveys prominent themes and images in Nerval's poetry and fiction. When Gérard de Nerval hanged himself on the night of 25 January 1855 in Rue de la Vi... Read more

In the following excerpt, Lokke discusses Nerval's social, psychological, and mythological portrayal of women in his prose. One glance at the titles of Nerval's major works shows wome... Read more

In the following excerpt from an anonymous review of The Selected Writings of Gérard de Nerval, the critic comments on the wide appeal that Nerval's work has held for readers and critics... Read more

In the following essay, Sullivan examines Nerval's use of the theater as a religious and metaphysical image in his writing. Nerval is obsessed by the theatre. As if reflected in the pieces o... Read more

In the following essay, Brombert investigates "motifs of enclosure, escape, and freedom" in Nerval's work. Facetious Prisons? "Politique (1831)," originally en... Read more

In the following excerpt, Feder explicates Aurélia as a work depicting madness as a process of self-creation and discovery for Nerval The Aesthetics of Madness The extremes of Géra... Read more

Symons was a critic, poet, dramatist, short story writer, and editor who first gained notoriety in the 1890s as an English decadent. Eventually, he established himself as one of the most important cri... Read more

In the excerpt below, Fairlie examines themes, form, and tone in Sylvie. Sylvie used to be read as a delightful country idyll. Reaction set in and it became 'le poème de la fin du monde... Read more

In the following excerpt, American educator and author Knapp explores the religious aspects of Isis and the role of the female in the work. Nerval's narrative Isis (1845) is an expression of... Read more

In the following essay, Smith describes the quality of figuration in Pandora that prevents the novella from succumbing to abstraction, disorder, and senselessness. She also delineates the differences ... Read more

In the excerpt below, Lokke discusses Nerval's depiction of women in his short fiction. One glance at the titles of Nerval's major works shows women to be the heart, the center, of hi... Read more

Fowlie is one of the most respected and versatile critics of French literature. His works include translations of major dramatists and poets of France as well as critical studies of the major figures ... Read more

Bays is an American educator and critic specializing in French literature. In the following excerpt, she asserts that Nerval attempted to unify myth, the occult, and religion in Les Chimères. ... Read more

In the following essay, Strange contends that the allegorical dimension of "Horus" is augmented by the mythology employed in the poem. Although overshadowed by "El Desdichado&#... Read more

In the following essay, Kneller studies the language, imagery, and literary devices used in "Artémis" and asserts that Nerval's poem is "the most ambitious, the most... Read more