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Gérard de Nerval
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De Nerval: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) Paperback – August 1, 1999

French Edition by Gerard de Nerval (Author), Richard Sieburth (Translator)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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Poet, visionary, short-story writer and autobiographer, Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855) explored the uncertain borderlines between dream and reality, irony and madness, autobiography and fiction with his groundbreaking writings. This comprehensive selection of his works includes 'Aurélia', the memoir of his madness; the haunting novella of love and memory 'Sylvie' (considered to be a masterpiece by Proust); the hermetic sonnets of 'The Chimeras'; as well as Nerval's experimental fictions and selections from his correspondence, which demonstrate his lucid awareness of how nineteenth-century psychiatry consigned his fertile imagination to the status of mental illness. Together these pieces confirm Nerval's place as a pioneering modernist, a precursor of the French Symbolists and a vital model for such writers as Marcel Proust, André Breton, Antonin Artaud and Michel Leiris.
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  1. Print length
    448 pages
  2. Language
    English, French, French
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 1999
  5. Grade level
    12 and up
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    5 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    014044601X
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0140446012
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gerard de Nerval (1805-55) was an inveterate traveller, and made many contributions of travel literature to various periodicals. He was also a prolific poet and wrote many tales including 'Sylvie' (1853), his most read work. Richard Sieburth is Professor of French at New York University. He has translated Walter Benjamin's 'Moscow Diary' and Michel Leiris' 'Nights as Day/Days as Night'.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; First Edition (August 1, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English, French, French
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014044601X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140446012
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

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Gérard de Nerval

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
37 global ratings
Superb Collection of Nerval's Prose and Poetry.
5 Stars
Superb Collection of Nerval's Prose and Poetry.
This is a very good collection of Nerval translations. There are others which are very good, although not nearly as comprehensive. The translator provides an excellent introduction and annotations. The only disappointment is the absence of Nerval's stories on Pompeii and Isis .
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Top reviews from the United States

signate
5.0 out of 5 stars its odd
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2023
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great stories, imagery, atmosphere of another time
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W.T.M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Collection of Nerval's Prose and Poetry.
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2022
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This is a very good collection of Nerval translations. There are others which are very good, although not nearly as comprehensive. The translator provides an excellent introduction and annotations. The only disappointment is the absence of Nerval's stories on Pompeii and Isis .
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W.T.M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Collection of Nerval's Prose and Poetry.
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2022
This is a very good collection of Nerval translations. There are others which are very good, although not nearly as comprehensive. The translator provides an excellent introduction and annotations. The only disappointment is the absence of Nerval's stories on Pompeii and Isis .
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3 people found this helpful
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John J. Falkenstine
5.0 out of 5 stars Dense writing extremely good
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
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You better set some serious time aside to read this and don't skip a page including the foreword. I bought it for some writing research. The poor fellow did his best, Alexandre Dumas is now seen in a different light by me. I got the paperback version, The quality of the paper is wretched, like something from a Russian paper mill.
2 people found this helpful
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J
3.0 out of 5 stars Everything about the book is fine except for the fact that the translated versions of ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015
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Everything about the book is fine except for the fact that the translated versions of his poems are strangely crammed at the bottom of their pages, which, as a result, removed their poetic format so that now, they just look like short paragraphs.
5 people found this helpful
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Daniel B.
5.0 out of 5 stars GERARD DE NERVAL: A Comprehensive Anthology of a Visionary Poet
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2015
Richard Sieburth has created a wonderfully comprehensive overview of Nerval's writings in this 400-page anthology. Included are Nerval's central prose narratives, Sylvia and Aurelia. A true devotee of this poet will come back to these two works repeatedly. Readers will never exhaust their poetic riches. Sieburth divides Nerval's poetic prose works into four evocative categories, each one prefaced by his illuminating comments: Shadow Selves, Memories of Valois, Unreal Cities, Dream/Life. This is excellent. He preserves the mystery of Nerval, but gives the reader a map by which to journey through that mysterious terrain. Nerval is ever the Poet, even though he wrote more prose than verse. By poet I mean a visionary who transforms ordinary reality into something marvelous and liberating. He is the master of transformations and metaphors. His key poems are the so-called CHIMERAS, hermetic sonnets, that allow you to enter their labyrinth but when you leave, you will carry that labyrinth within. The mystery of THE CHIMERAS is the mystery of life itself. They are not to be understood, but experienced and embodied. Richard Sieburth does not translate them in verse form, but his literal prose versions give you the basic meanings to work with.
12 people found this helpful
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Arch Llewellyn
5.0 out of 5 stars The Ruined Tower
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2003
Nerval was the Mother of All Bohemians, a romantic eccentric who set the stage for latter-day zanies from Arthur Rimbaud to John Wieners. His most famous stunt was parading through Paris with a lobster, explaining to his friends: "He does not bark, and he knows the secrets of the deep." With the beautiful, dense, enigmatic poems in 'The Chimeras' he virtually invented literary Modernism, while 'Aurelia' is one of the most touching accounts of schizophrenia ever written (the book is worth it for these two pieces alone, along with the proto-Proustian 'Sylvie'). Nerval's tragic disintegration, ending in suicide in 1855, seems to mark the point where Romanticism turned from fantasy and Nature to madness and derangement, a pattern that still plays out in our culture in a hundred different ways. Sieburth's a little intrusive with the prefaces and footnotes--he seems anxious you might not 'get' Nerval without his help. The sections are also arranged thematically instead of chronologically, which makes it hard to trace his development as a writer. But the notes include plenty of useful biographical information, and for the money it's easily the best selection of Nerval's writings in English. A great intro to a fascinating writer.
42 people found this helpful
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Alexander Homer
4.0 out of 5 stars Gogol meets Balzac?
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2018
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Nerval is a tragic figure, and in many of his writings, his growing neurosis comes through. Among the most interesting of his writings in this volume are his Daughters of the Fire. Others foresee the rise of symbolism in the latter half of the 19th Century, but with a somewhat vague and nebulous imagery in both his prose and poetry. This volume is organized thematically rather than chronologically, which can be a bit confusing at times, but overall is compiled in a way that clearly provides a portrait of Nerval through his work. Ultimately, however, one is left with the feeling of having read a series of works by a man struggling with mental health issues rather than being lost in the stories themselves.
2 people found this helpful
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goblinmarket
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent phantasmagoric collection!
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2000
I came upon this volume by chance, after it won a translation prize from PEN, but was glad I did. Nerval seems to take up a curious position in literary history, and though is something of an eccentric, he was loved by later writers (Proust) and by artists (Joseph Cornell). The stories are strange and fantastic, travel narratives which are more journeys of the mind than actual travels. Anyone with an interest in the surreal, or in the fabular fictions of Calvino or Borges, will find these stories a delight. The stories raise questions about identity, sanity and madness, and linguisticly are truly alluring.
Also included are a number of poems and letters, which combined with the prose pieces present a great picture of the author's whole work. It seems like the best place to start for anyone who has not read Nerval before, but I'm sure that dedicated enthusiasts will find new pleasure in the excellent translation and the lucid editorial expositions that Richard Sieburth provides throughout the text.
34 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Richard Armin
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for understanding French orientalism.
Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2023
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Nerval in effect set the stage for Baudelaire and Rimbaud
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John Martin
3.0 out of 5 stars The book is important
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2020
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The cover was well worn and had a tair.
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giselle fryatt
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2016
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Great condition, great work
One person found this helpful
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