Editing Gérard de Nerval (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Gérard Labrunie was born in Paris on 22 May 1808.<ref name="Cogez11">Gérard Cogez, ''Gérard de Nerval'' 11.</ref> His mother, Marie Marguerite Antoinette Laurent, was the daughter of a clothing salesman,<ref name="Petitfils15">Pierre Petitfils, ''Nerval'' p. 15.</ref> and his father, Étienne Labrunie, was a young doctor who had volunteered to serve as a medic in the army under [[Napoleon]].<ref name="Cogez13">Cogez 13.</ref>

In June 1808, soon after Gérard's birth, Étienne was drafted. With his young wife in tow, Étienne followed the army on tours of Germany and Austria, eventually settling in a hospital in [[Głogów]].<ref name="Cogez14">Cogez 14.</ref> While they travelled East, the Labrunies left their newborn son Gérard in the care of Marie Marguerite's uncle Antoine Boucher, who lived in [[Mortefontaine, Oise|Mortefontaine]], a small town in the [[Counts and dukes of Valois|Valois]] region, not far from Paris.<ref name="Cogez13">Cogez 13.</ref> On 29 November 1810 Marie Marguerite died before she could return to France.<ref name="Cogez14" /> Gérard was two years old. Having buried his wife, Étienne took part in the disastrous [[French invasion of Russia]].<ref name="Cogez15">Cogez 15.</ref> He was reunited with his son in 1814.<ref name="Cogez15" />

Upon his return to France in 1814, Étienne took his son and moved back to Paris, starting a medical practice at 72 rue Saint-Martin.<ref>Cogez 16</ref> Gérard lived with his father but often stayed with his great-uncle Boucher in Mortefontaine and with Gérard Dublanc at 2 rue de Mantes (now 2 rue du Maréchal Joffre) in [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. (Dublanc, Étienne's uncle, was also Gérard's godfather.)<ref name="Cogez11" />

In 1822 Gérard enrolled at the [[Lycée Charlemagne|collège Charlemagne]]. This was where he met and befriended [[Théophile Gautier]]. This was also where he began to take poetry more seriously. He was especially drawn to epic poetry. At age 16, he wrote a poem that recounted the circumstances of Napoleon's defeat called "{{Lang|fr|Napoléon ou la France guerrière, élégies nationales|italic=no}}".<ref>Cogez 20.</ref> Later, he tried out satire, writing poems that took aim at Prime Minister [[Jean-Baptiste de Villèle|Villèle]], the Jesuit order, and anti-liberal newspapers like ''[[La Quotidienne]]''.<ref>Cogez 21–22.</ref> His writing started to be published in 1826.

At age 19, with minimal knowledge of the German language, he began the ambitious task of translating [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]''.<ref>Cogez 24</ref> His prose translation appeared in 1828. Despite its many flaws, the translation had many merits, and it did a great deal to establish his poetic reputation.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jean |last=Richer |title=Nerval par les témoins de sa vie |publisher= éditions Minard |year= 1970 | page=73|isbn= 0-320-05499-3}}</ref> It is the reason why [[Victor Hugo]], the leader of the [[French romanticism|Romantic movement in France]], felt compelled to have Gérard come to his apartment on 11, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.<ref name="Cogez27">Cogez 27.</ref>

===Cénacle===
In 1829, having received his baccalaureate degree two years late (perhaps because he skipped classes to go for walks and read for pleasure),<ref name="Cogez27" /> Gérard was under pressure from his father to find steady employment.  He took a job at a notary's office, but his heart was set on literature. When [[Victor Hugo]] asked him to support his play ''[[Hernani (drama)|Hernani]]'', under attack from conservative critics suspicious of Romanticism, Gérard was more than happy to join the fight (see {{ill|Bataille d'Hernani|fr}}).

Gérard was sympathetic to the liberal and republican atmosphere of the time, and was briefly imprisoned in 1832 for participating in student demonstrations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Karen L. |title=The Facts on File Companion to the French Novel |date=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |pages=285–286}}</ref> Gérard set himself two anthology projects: one on German poetry, and one on French poetry. [[Alexandre Dumas]] and [[Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie]] arranged a library card for him so he could carry out his research.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}}

The first anthology included translations of [[Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock|Klopstock]], [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]], [[Gottfried August Bürger|Bürger]] and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], and met with less enthusiasm than his translation of ''Faust''. The second anthology included poems by [[Pierre de Ronsard|Ronsard]], [[Joachim du Bellay]], [[Jean-Antoine de Baïf]], [[Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas|Guillaume Du Bartas]] and {{ill|Jean-Baptiste Chassignet|fr}}.

By the fall of 1830, the ''[[Cénacle]]'', a group created by [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]] to ensure Victor Hugo's success with ''Hernani'', had assembled many famed writers, including [[Alfred de Vigny]], [[Alfred de Musset]], [[Charles Nodier]], [[Alexandre Dumas]] and [[Honoré de Balzac]]. After ''Hernani''{{'}}s success, the Cénacle began to fall apart. At that time a new group appeared: the Petit-Cénacle, created by the sculptor [[Jean Bernard Duseigneur]]. Gérard attended some of the meetings, which took place in Duseigneur's studio.<ref>Pierre Petitfils, ''Nerval'', {{p.|63}}.</ref>

Gérard, following Hugo's lead, started to write plays. ''Le Prince des sots'' and ''Lara ou l'expiation'' were shown at the [[Théâtre de l'Odéon]] and met with positive reviews. He started to use the pseudonym Gérard de Nerval, inspired by the name of a property near Loisy (a village near [[Ver-sur-Launette]], [[Oise]]) which had belonged to his family.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130718123323/http://www.litterature-pour-tous.com/article-xix-eme-gerard-de-nerval-38221929.html litterature-pour-tous.com].</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.terresdecrivains.com/Gerard-de-NERVAL |title=Gérard de NERVAL |language=fr |date=28 August 2003 |access-date=17 June 2016}}</ref>

===Work with Dumas===

In January 1834, Nerval's maternal grandfather died and he inherited around 30,000 francs. That autumn, he headed to southern France and then travelled to Florence, Rome and Naples. On his return in 1835, he moved in with a group of Romantic artists (including {{ill|Camille Rogier|fr}}). In May of that year, he created ''Le Monde Dramatique,'' a luxurious literary journal on which he squandered his inheritance. Debt-ridden, he finally sold it in 1836. Getting his start in journalism, he travelled to Belgium with Gautier from July to September.

In 1837, ''Piquillo'' was shown at the Opéra-Comique. Despite Nerval's work on the project, Dumas' was the only name on the libretto. {{ill|Jenny Colon|fr}} played the main role. Nerval may have fallen in love with the actress. Some specialists claim that his unrequited love for her is what inspired many of the female figures that appear in his writing, including the Virgin Mary, Isis, the queen of Saba. Other experts disagree with this biographical analysis.<ref>For example, see Christine Bomboir, ''Les Lettres d'amour de Nerval : mythe ou réalité ?'', {{p.|93–94}}.</ref>

Despite Dumas' refusal to let him take credit for his work, Nerval continued to collaborate with Dumas on plays. In the summer of 1838, he travelled with Dumas to Germany to work on ''Léo Burckart,'' which eventually premiered at the [[Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin]] on 16 April 1839, six days after the premiere of another play the pair worked on together called ''L'Alchimiste.'' In November 1839, Nerval travelled to Vienna, where he met the pianist [[Marie Pleyel]] at the French embassy.

===First nervous breakdowns===

Back in France in March 1840, Nerval took over Gautier's column at ''La Presse.'' After publishing a third edition of ''Faust'' in July, including a preface and fragments of ''Second Faust,'' he travelled to Belgium in October. On 15 December ''Piquillo'' premiered in Brussels, where Nerval crossed paths with Jenny Colon and Marie Pleyel once again.

After a first nervous breakdown on 23 February 1841, he was cared for at the Sainte-Colombe Borstal ("maison de correction"). On 1 March [[Jules Janin]] published an obituary for Nerval in the ''Journal des Débats.'' After a second nervous breakdown, Nerval was housed in Docteur Esprit Blanche's clinic in Montmartre, where he remained from March to November.

===Travels===

On 22 December 1842, Nerval set off for the Near East, travelling to [[Alexandria]], [[Cairo]], [[Beirut]], [[Constantinople]], [[Malta]] and [[Naples]]. Back in Paris in 1843, he began to publish articles about his trip in 1844. His ''[[Voyage en Orient]]'' appeared in 1851.

Between 1844 and 1847, Nerval travelled to Belgium, the Netherlands, and London, producing [[travel writing]]. At the same time, he wrote novellas and opera librettos and translated poems by his friend [[Heinrich Heine]], publishing a selection of translations in 1848. His last years were spent in dire financial and emotional straits. Following his doctor Emile Blanche's advice, he tried to purge himself of his intense emotions in his writing. This is when he composed some of his best works.

[[File:Gustave Doré, La Rue de la Vieille Lanterne The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval, 1855.jpg|thumb|''La rue de la vieille lanterne: The Suicide of Gérard de Nerval'', by [[Gustave Doré]], 1855]]
Nerval had a pet [[lobster]] named Thibault, which he walked at the end of a blue silk ribbon in the [[Palais-Royal]] in Paris.<ref name="Horton">{{cite magazine|url= https://harpers.org/2008/10/nerval-a-man-and-his-lobster/| title= Nerval: A Man and His Lobster| first = Scott| last = Horton| author-link = Scott Horton (lawyer)| date= 12 October 2008| magazine= Harper's Magazine| access-date = 22 January 2010}}</ref> According to [[Théophile Gautier]], Nerval said:<ref>{{cite book|last=Gautier |first= Théophile |title=Portraits et Souvenirs Littéraires |location= Paris |publisher=Charpentier |year= 1875 }}</ref>
{{quote|Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog? ...or a cat, or a gazelle, or a lion, or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don't bark, and they don't gnaw upon one's ''monadic'' privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn't mad.}}

In his later years, Nerval also took an interest in socialism, tracing its origins to the eighteenth-century [[Les Illuminés|Illuminists]] and esoteric authors such as [[Nicolas-Edme Rétif]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wyngaard |first1=Amy S. |title=Bad Books: Rétif de la Bretonne, Sexuality, and Pornography |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=3}}</ref>

===Suicide===

Increasingly poverty-stricken and disoriented, he took his own life during the night of 26 January 1855, by hanging himself from the bar of a cellar window in the rue de la Vieille-Lanterne, a narrow lane in a squalid section of Paris.{{efn|The street existed only a few months longer. The area had been scheduled for demolition in June 1854, and that work began in the spring of 1855. The site of Nerval's suicide is now occupied by the [[Théâtre de la Ville]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carmona|first1=Michel|title=Haussmann: His Life and Times and the Making of Modern Paris|date=2002|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|location=Chicago|isbn=1-56663-427-X|pages=249–51}}</ref>}} He left a brief note to his aunt: "Don't wait up for me this evening, for the night will be black and white."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sieburth |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFHKmDZgd-cC&pg=PR31 |title=Gérard de Nerval: Selected Writings |page= xxxi |publisher=Penguin Group |location= London |year=1999|isbn=9780140446012 }}</ref> Just like in English, in French a ''nuit blanche'' (literal translation: a white night) is a sleepless night. {{cn|date=October 2024}}

The poet [[Charles Baudelaire]] observed that Nerval had "delivered his soul in the darkest street that he could find." The discoverers of his body were puzzled by the fact that his hat was still on his head. The last pages of his manuscript for ''{{ill|Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie|fr}}'' were found in a pocket of his coat. After a religious ceremony at the Notre-Dame cathedral (which was granted despite his suicide because of his troubled mental state), he was buried in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris, at the expense of his friends [[Théophile Gautier]] and [[Arsène Houssaye]], who published ''Aurélia'' as a book later that year.

The complete works of Gérard de Nerval are published in three volumes by [[Gallimard]] in the collection ''[[Bibliothèque de la Pléiade]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.la-pleiade.fr/Le-catalogue/Par-auteur/%28letter%29/N/%28author%29/1873 |title=Le Catalogue: Gerard de Nerval|access-date = 1 September 2015}}</ref>