Les Chimeres

Nerval (1808-1855) is one of the most important writers of nineteenth-century France, both in prose and in verse. A precursor of the symbolists and the surrealists, Nerval has fascinated many major literary figures, including Proust and Breton, Eliot and Apollinaire, Michaux and Leiris. The great sonnet cycle, Les Chimères, in its marvellous combination of spell, quest and dream, continues to fascinate writers, readers, and that special category of writerly readers, translators. The transla...