Nerval, Gérard de [key], 1808–55, French writer, an early romantic. His real name was Gérard Labrunie. His writings include translations of Faust (1828) and other German works; short stories, notably in Les Filles du feu (1854, partial tr. Daughters of Fire, 1922); travel sketches; and poems. Les Chimères (12 sonnets appended to Les Filles du feu) and Aurélia, his fantastic spiritual autobiography, which mirrors a life that ended in madness and probable suicide, have had some influence on modern surrealists.
See his selected writings (tr. by G. Wagner, 1957); study by N. Rinsler (1973).
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