Aurelia & Other Writings | 
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Aurelia is a document of dreams, obsession, and insanity. An account of Nerval's unrequited passion for an actress and subsequent descent into madness, this book was a favorite of artist Joseph Cornell's, and its author was championed by both Marcel Proust and Andre Breton. One of the original self-styled "bohemians," Nerval was best known in his own day for parading a lobster on a pale blue ribbon through the gardens of the Palais-Royal, and for his suicide in 1855, hanging from an apron string he called the garter of the Queen of Sheba. Geoffrey Wagner's translation of Aurelia was first published by Grove Press in 1959, but has remained out of print for nearly twenty years. Included are previously untranslated stories, and poet Robert Duncan's version of the sonnet cycle "Chimeras"- making this the most complete collection of Nerval ever published in English.
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Customer Reviews:
• Tragic Search For The Infinite 01 March, 2004
simultaneously one of the saddest and most hopeful books i have ever read, this is an account of gerard de nerval's descent into insanity and his frantic search for something beyond what the positivists offer, a "spirit world". nerval obsesses over an actress who barely knew he existed, idealizing her to a seriously nutty point--but during all this he visits funerals, graveyards other places, apparently believing he is in touch with something metaphysical. i read this book awhile ago but i do remember his reference to his rejection by the woman, aurelia:"one's only option after these kinds of events is whether to die or go on living." touching, mystical, and sad.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2HW33PQSRHLNO
• Good Introduction To Artaud 23 June, 2007
This was the first book I read by Antonin Artaud.
I was really moved by this man and he helped me
realize that one could an outsider yet still
remain in centricity of culture. I don't know
alot of it went over my head I guess but the
man is extremely interesting and offers neat
challenges to his time and to the reader.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2MOMVWXP0YJIM
• Best Explanation Of A Romantic 02 February, 1999
Because this book shows what a real romantic means beyond the common meaning of "being in love". Because De Narval is a Romantic, he behaves trying to be the center of everything, no matter the price or the pride. He loves as a tool to make women move around him. His dreams are an extension of his life, so he can live any dream as real because the memorie of the real is the same as the memorie of the dream.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2T14X4XOVXBTL
• Concentrated Romanticism 28 December, 2006
I love Nerval's voice and his lush dreamy nostalgia. Many of these pieces are like looking at a Rococo painting and there's many of the classic Romantic themes, love of nature, nostalgia for a lost idyllic past and lost youth. I love literary surrealism so Aurelia was right up my alley but it has a more spiritual vibe which seems lacking in more modern surrealist works. After reading Nerval I can see why the surrealists considered themselves the prehensile tail of Romanticism.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AYNXYFUE5627V
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