Gerard La'Brunie was born in Paris on May 22, 1808. His father, Etienne La'Bruine, was a young doctor who had volunteered to serve as a medic in the army under Napoleon, his mother, Marie Marguerite Antoinette Laurent, was the daughter of a clothing salesman.
In June 1808, soon after Gerard was born, Etienne was drafted. While they traveled East, the parents left their newborn son in the care of the mother's uncle Antoine Boucher. On November 29, 1810 the mother died before she could come back to France. Gerard was 2 years old. The father was reunited with his son in 1814, in Paris. The boy lived with his father but often stayed with the mother's uncle in Morte'Fontaine and with Gerard Dublanc, his father's uncle, and Gerard's godfather, in Saint Germain-en-Laye, West of Paris.
In 1822, at the age of 14, Gerard enrolled at the Lycee Charlemagne. Here he met and befriended Pierre Jules Theophile Gautier, a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist and art and literary critic.
This was also where he began to take poetry more seriously. He was specially drawn to epic poetry.
At the age of 16, he wrote a poem that recounted the circumstances of Napoleon's defeat. Later, he tried out satire, writing poems that took aim at Prime Minister Villele, leader of the Ultra-royalist faction during the Bourbon Restoration; the Jesuit Order; and anti-liberal newspapers. His writings started to be published in 1826.
At the age of 19, with minimal knowledge of the German language, he began the ambitious task of translating Goethe's Faust, a tragic play in two parts. Part One takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is heaven. A demon makes a bet with God by saying that he can lure God's favorite human being, who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. In Faust's study room, he turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning. He feels that his attempts are failing. Frustrated, he ponders suicide, but rejects the idea as he hears the echo of nearby Easter celebration. He goes for a walk with his assistant and is followed by a dog similar to a sheep dog. In his studio, the dog transforms into the demon. Faust makes an arrangement with the demon in which it will do everything that he wants while he is here on Earth and in exchange he will serve the devil in hell. Faust's arrangement is that if he is pleased enough with anything the demon gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, then he will die in that moment. When the demon tells Faust to sign the pact with blood, Faust complains that the demon does not trust Faust's word of horror. In the end, the demons wins the argument and Faust signs the contract with a drop of his own blood. Then he meets a woman that was attracted to him, and the demon draws her into Faust's arms. With the demon's aid he seduces her and her mother dies from a sleeping potion, administered by her daughter to obtain privacy so that he can visit her. She becomes pregnant. Her brother condemns Faust, challenges him and fall dead at the hands of Faust and the demon. The woman drowns her illegitimate child and is convicted of murder. Faust tries to save her from death by attempting to free her from prison. Finding that she refuses to do so, he and the demon flee the dungeon. Faust remains unsatisfied.
In part two Faust wakes in a field of fairies and initiate a new cycle of adventures and purpose. The first part represents the small world and the second part represents the wider world or macrocosm. Faust goes to heaven, for he loses only half of the bet. Angels declare at the end: "He who strives on and lives to strive can still earn redemption."
Gerard's prose translation appeared in 1828, doing a great deal to establish his poetic reputation. It is the reason why Victor Hugo, the leader of the Romantic movement in France, felt compelled to have him as a guest in his apartment. Victor Hugo asked him to support his play Hernani, under attack from conservative critics, he was more than happy to join the fight.
The French Revolution of 1830, however, was an event that didn't caught his attention. Instead, he set himself into two projects: German and French poetry. Alexandre Dumas and Pierre-Sebastien Laurentie arranged a library card for him so he could carry out his research.
Gerard, following Hugo's lead, started to write plays and used the pseudonym Gerard de Nerval, inspired by the name of a property that belonged to his family.
In January 1834, Nerval's maternal grandfather died and he inherited around 30,000 francs. In May of that year, he created Le Monde Dramatique, a luxurious literary journal that made him squander his inheritance. Debt-ridden, he finally sold it in 1836.
In 1837, Gerard worked inthe project 'Piquillo,' but Dumas was the only name on the libretto. Nerval may have fallen in love with the actress. His unrequited love for her is what inspired many of the female figures that appeared in his writing. In the summer of 1838, he traveled with Dumas to Germany to work on another project 'Leo Burckart' which was eventually premiered on April 16, 1839, six days after the premiere of another play the pair worked on together 'L'Alchimiste.
In November 1839, Nerval travelled to Vienna, where he met the pianist Marie Pleyel. Back in France in March 1840, Nerval took over Gautier's column at La Presse. After publishing a 3rd edition of Faust in July, he travelled to Belgium in October. On December 15, 'Piquillo' premiered in Brussels, where Nerval crossed paths with the actress and the pianist once again.
After his 1st nervous breakdown on February 23, 1841 he was cared for at the Sainte-Colombe Borstal (maison de correction). After a 2nd nervous breakdown, Nerval was housed in Docteur Esprit Blanche, a clinic in Mont'Martre, where he remained for 8 months.
On December 22, 1842 he set off for the Near East, traveling to Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, Malta, Naples and Constantinopla. Back in Paris in 1843, Nerval started to publish articles about his trip.
Between 1844 and 1847, he traveled to Belgium, the Netherlands, to London, producing a significant amount of 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.
Gerard's last years were spent in dire financial and emotional straits. Following his doctor's advice, he tried to purge himself of his intense emotions in his writings. This is when he composed some of his best works.
Nerval was said to have taken his pet lobster for a walk in the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris one day, using a blue ribbon for a leash. He said, 'Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog? or 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 do not bark, and they do not gnaw upon one's privacy like dogs do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he was not mad.
On January 26, 1855, during the night time, he committed suicide at the age of 46, by hanging himself from the bar of a cellar window in the Rue de la Vieille-Lanterne, a narrow line in a squalid section of Paris. He left a brief note to his aunt: "Do not wait up for me this evening, for the night will be black and white."
Gerard died in the darkest street that he could find.
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