SOURCE: "Nerval: Reading between the Lines," in Timely Reading: Between Exegesis and Interpretation, Cornell, 1988, pp. 135-56.

In the following excerpt, Noakes observes the significance of time in Aurélia and comments on the relationship between the narrator and his double in the novella.

The Failed Dialectic of Exegesis and Interpretation

Aurélia begins with a catalogue of the narrator's mental library and his statement that his readings have driven him mad: "[Cette folie] est la faute de mes lectures" (My readings bear the blame for [this madness]). It is important to distinguish this statement from Francesca's, for Nerval's narrator sees his madness as the fault not of his books but of his readings of those books, of the mistaken way he has interpreted them. Again, near the end of the story a voice from the beyond reproaches the narrator for his failure as a reader: "Tout cela était...