SOURCE: Introduction to Selected Writings of Gérard de Nerval, translated and with a Critical Introduction and Notes by Geoffrey Wagner, Grove Press, 1957, pp. 5-46.

In the following excerpt, Wagner offers a survey of Nerval's works and a summary of his influence.

Il n'y a qu'un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux: c'est le suicide. Juger que la vie vaut ou ne vaut pas la peine d'être vécue, c'est répondre à la question fondamentale de la philosophie.

Albert Camus, Le Mythe de Sisyphe

More than most writers Gérard de Nerval has suffered from failing to fall into any very definite period or genre. His influence has been wider than his appeal and he has not always come off well in the rather arid region of literary history for his work, like the work of any mystic poet, resists classification. André Gide, of all writers, has...