Nerval, G�rard de, properly G�rard Labrunie 1808-55
French writer

Born in Paris, he was greatly influenced by reading his uncle's collection of occult books as a youth. At the age of 20, he published a translation of Goethe's Faust, expanded as Faust, et le second Faust (1840), which Hector Berlioz drew on in his La Damnation de Faust (1846). He wrote in prose and verse, but his travels, criticism, plays and poems are less interesting than his fantastic short tales, the Contes et fac�ties (1852, 'Stories and Jests'), the partly autobiographical series Filles du feu (1854, Eng trans Daughters of Fire, 1923), and La Boh�me galante (1855, 'Gallant Bohemian Life'). He is often seen as a precursor of both the Symbolist and Surrealist movements.

Bibliography: L Cellier, G�rard de Nerval (1956)