About
Aloysius Bertrand, born Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand, was a French poet born in Ceva (Piedmont) in 1807. Raised in Burgundy, he studied at the Collège de Dijon before moving to Paris in 1833, where he associated with Victor Hugo, Charles Nodier, and Sainte-Beuve. He is recognized as the inventor of the prose poem, notably through his major work, Gaspard de la Nuit, published posthumously in 1842. This collection, organized into six books blending medieval, fantastic, grotesque, and ironic registers, influenced Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and the Surrealists. Bertrand died of tuberculosis in Paris in 1841, in poverty.
* 1807-04-20 — † 1841-04-28
Major works
- Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot (1842)prose poetry collection
Key milestones
- 1833Moves to Paris and frequents the literary circles of Victor Hugo, Charles Nodier, and Sainte-Beuve.
- 1842Posthumous publication of Gaspard de la Nuit, with a preface by Sainte-Beuve.
- 1908Maurice Ravel composes his piano suite Gaspard de la Nuit, inspired by the collection.
Themes
the fantasticthe grotesquethe Middle Agesironynight
Sources: larousse.fr · oxfordreference.com · id.loc.gov