SOURCE: "An Approach to Nerval," in Imagination and Language: Collected Essays on Constant, Baudelaire, Nerval and Flaubert, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 271-87.

In the following essay, originally published in 1961, Fairlie discusses the prevailing themes and images in Nerval's Les Chimeres and Sylvie.

The immensely increasing volume of detailed and often valuable research on Nerval has made it difficult for any but the most impenitent specialist to pretend to an understanding or an appreciation of his works. A generation ago it was easier to enjoy him with a clear conscience, and he was no recognized part of academic studies. Since then he has made a triumphal progress from log cabin to White House, and academic consecration was reached when he became a set author for the Agrégation. Even then, the Sorbonne seemed unhappy about how he might best be approached, for to their list of recommended reading they...