Born Gérard Labrunie in Paris in 1808, Nerval was, under his assumed name, Baudelaire’s model of the “poète maudit,” the doomed poet with a vision so intense the world will destroy him if he does not destroy himself. His masterpiece, “Les Chimères” (named for the mythic she-monster with lion’s head, goat’s body, and serpent’s tail), is one of the greatest sonnet sequences ever written.

Like Poe, another of Baudelaire’s heroes, Nerval suffered from manic depression and delusions of grandeur. After a manic episode in 1841, he was judged insane and hospitalized for nine months. During this period he wrote “Christ on the Mount of Olives,” and a version of “Delphica.” During that initial stay in the Clinique du Montmartre, Labrunie became Nerval. The nom de plume is based upon a genealogy the poet invented to replace his real family tree. Like tho ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase