Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval, by Nadar
Born	Gérard Labrunie (1808-05-22)22 May 1808 Paris, France
Died	26 January 1855(1855-01-26) (aged 46) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	poet, essayist and translator
Notable work	Voyage en Orient (1851) Les Filles du Feu (1854)
Movement	Romanticism

Gérard de Nerval (French: [ʒeʁaʁ də nɛʁval]; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the nom-de-plume of the French writer, poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie. A major figure of French romanticism, he is best known for his poems and novellas, especially the collection Les Filles du feu (The Daughters of Fire), which includes the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". He played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including , Schiller, Bürger, and Goethe. His later work delved into the relationship between poetry and madness, reality and fiction, and dreams and life. He was a major influence on Marcel Proust, André Breton and Surrealism.

Gérard Labrunie was born in Paris on 22 May 1808. His mother, Marie Marguerite Antoinette Laurent, was the daughter of a clothing salesman, and his father, Étienne Labrunie, was a young doctor who had volunteered to serve as a medic in the army under Napoleon.

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. While they traveled East, the Labrunies left their newborn son Gérard in the care of Marie Marguerite's uncle Antoine Boucher, who lived in Mortefontaine, a small town in the Valois region, not far from Paris. On November 29, 1810, Marie Marguerite died before she could come back to France. Gérard was two years old. Having buried his wife, Étienne took part in the disastrous French invasion of Russia. He was reunited with his son in 1814.