For endless encouragement, expert help and inexplicable good humour my warmest thanks are due to Richard Cohen, a prince among editors; to Catherine Carver, for her sensitive reading and advice; to Elisabeth Sifton, for her patience and enthusiasm; and as ever to my old friend and advisor Peter Janson-Smith.
I have been greatly helped through the generosity of the Society of Authors; Ismena Holland; and Philip Howard of The Times, whose memo, “Dear Richard, where are you?”still travels with me. The Bridge House Factor has never failed.
Finally I should like to greet those friends whose kindness kept me together, in good weather and bad, at home and abroad. Some of them appear lightly disguised in this book, though none under their own names: Peter Jay of the Anvil Press; Sophie Vial of Marie-France; Pierre Voisin of the Librarie Sorbonne; Robert and Laurence de Bosmelet; Damon and Marie-Solange Pollard-Dubois; Françoise Dasques of IBM; and Alan Judd of Rovers International. To them all, the seventh card, the Chariot.
Richard Holmes
London, 26 January 1985
Index
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Note: PBS refers to Percy Bysshe Shelley; RLS refersto Robert Louis Stevenson; MW refers to Mary Wollstonecraft.
Adam-Salomon, Antoine Samuel, 202, 203
Alfredo, 167-70
Antwerp, 42
Apollinaris, Father, 31-2, 34, 37
Arnold, Matthew, on Shelley, 152, 182, 197-8
Auden, W. H., 205
Aussandon, Dr, 251
Backman, Elias, 112
Bagni di Lucca, 144-50, 156
Balzac, Honoré de, 224, 229, 233, 242, 257
Barlow, Joel, 117; in Paris, 102, 104, 106-7, 111-12; writings, and White’s Hotel group, 89
Barlow, Ruth, 112, 117; and MW, 102, 106, 115; MW’s letters to, 104-5, 118, 119
Bastille prison, 80
Baudelaire, Charles, 210, 233, 238; and Gautier, 247; on photography, 202; photographs of, 205-7
Beaupuy, Michel, 82, 85
Belgium, Nerval in, 230-1
Bell, George, 252, 259
Beresina river, French army crosses, 218
Berlioz, Hector, La Damnation de Faust, 222
Bernhardt, Sarah, photograph, 205
biography, writing, 27, 66-9, 115-16, 119-20, 130-1, 135-6, 249; artform?, 202; autobiography, 55, 207-8; “central consciousness”, 208-9; focusing effect, 114, 148; intimacy, 66, 120, 143-4, 173-4; objectivity, 67-9; photographycompared with, 150, 178-9, 202-3, 204-5; and possibilities, 168; andprivacy, 207-8; process of, 27, 66-69; self-identification with subject, problem of, 66-7, 264-5; and time, 179; trust in character, 173-5; see also past, the
Blake, William, 76
Blanche, Dr Emile, 251-2, 255, 257, 258-9; Nerval’s letters to, 257, 258, 260; account of Nerval’s death, 261-2
Blanche, Dr Esprit, 236, 237, 239, 251
Blois, Wordsworth at, 81-2
Blood, Fanny, 94, 119
Bojti, Dr, 159
Borel, Petrus, 223
Boris, 167-70
Boucher, Antoine, 217, 219-21, 265
Boucher, Mme (grandmother of Nerval), 222
Bregantz, Aline (Mme Fillietaz), seeFillietaz family
Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre, 95, 102, 106
Brussels, Nerval in, 229, 231, 243, 244
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 137, 146; and Claire Clairmont, 141, 155-6; and daughter Allegra, 141, 144, 155; and PBS, 138, 156, 177, 184, 185, 195; villas of, 144, 145, 146, 154, 178
CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), 78
Cairo, 167; Nerval at, 244, 245, 246
Camisards, the, 48-9, 61, 63-4
Carlyle, Thomas, 97
Casssagnas, 60-1
Cazotte, Jacques, 248, 250; Diable Amoureux, 248
Cévennes, storms of the, 25
Champfleury, Jules, 252
Chantilly (Valois), 271-3; château, 226; Les Fontaines, 271-2, 273; Lovenjoul Library, 270, 271, 272
character, human, consistency of, 173-175, 260
Charpentier (publisher), 235
Chastel, Jean, 24, 25
Chateaubriand, François René, Vicomte de, 233, 234
Chatterton, Thomas, 73, 224
Cheylard, 29, 30
Chiappa, Villa dei, 144, 146-50
Clairmont, Allegra, 140, 149, 155, 156, 171; with Byron, 141, 144; Clairevisits, 156, 157; death, 184, 187
Clairmont, Claire, 136, 137, 140; in Kentish Town, 1814-15, 155-6; and Byron, 155-6, 195; in Italy with Shelleys, 142, 144, 145, 146; alone with PBS, 1818, 156-7, 170; letter from PBS, 1818, 158-9; mother of Elena?, 170-7; in Rome, 163-5; away from PBS, in Florence, 159-62, 179-80; at Casa Magni, 160, 184, 188, 189, 191, 194, 195; leaves Italy, 154-5; papers surviving, 182; and daughter Allegra, 149, 155, 171, 184; visits Allegra, 156, 157; and Mary Shelley, 172, 176, 183, 191, 194; relations with PBS, 151, 152, 153-4, 155-62, 163-165, 174, 179-83, 187, 195; attractiveness, 181; journal, 154-5, 163-164, 165, 175-6; trans. Faust, 195
Clarisse (inn servant), 55-6
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 76, 77, 85;Biographia Literaria, 126
Colon, Jenny, 229, 243-4, 251, 264, 265
Colvin, Sidney, 43, 44, 45, 63, 64
communes, 76, 181; Paris Student, 88
community, PBS’s view of, 142-3
Condorcet, Marie Jean, Marquis de, 94, 95, 103, 106
Connolly, Cyril, 209, 278
Constantinople, Nerval in, 245-7
Corday, Charlotte, 110
Costaros, 21-2
Courbet, Gustave, The Artist’s Atelier, 206
Crèspy family, 13-15, 16
Curran, Aemilia, 165
Danton, Georges Jacques, 117
Dawes, Sophie (Duchesse de Feuchère), 226, 267
De Gaulle, Charles, 75
Delacroix, Ferdinand Eugène, Femmes d’Alger, 234
de Quincey, Thomas, 76
Deschamps, Anthony, 239, 240
Desmoulins, Camille, 117
dogs, 60, 275
donkeys, 16-17; Modestine, 17, 18, 19-20, 28, 50, 52-3, 62
doppdgänger. Nerval, 263-4; PBS, 195-196 Doré, Gustave, photograph, 205
dreams, 26-7, 30, 143, 150-1; PBS’s, 192-7
du Camp, Maxime, 203
du Condé, Duc, 226, 271
du Goulet, Montagne, 50
Dumas, Alexandre: collaborates with Nerval, 222, 229, 231; publishes”El Desdichado” and attacks Nerval in print, 255-6; and Nerval’s collected works, 256-7; La Tour de Nesle, 224
Dusetgneur, Jehan, 223
Duval, Jean, 206
Edinburgh, RLS in, 15, 32, 45
Egypt, Nerval in, 244, 245, 246-7
Eliot, T. S., The Waste Land, 212, 268
Elise (nurse), see Foggi, Elise
Este, Villa Capuccini, PBS at, 156-7, 172
Feuchère, Duchesse de (SophieDawes), 226, 267
Fillietaz family, 95, 97, 102, 106, 107
Finiels, Pic de, 52-5
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 89
Florac, 19, 59
Florence, 175; Claire Clairmont in, 159, 161, 174, 180
Foggi, Elise (nurse), 156-7, 171, 172, 173, 174
Foggi, Paolo (manservant), 144, 172, 175-6, 177 Fonfrède, Joseph, 234, 245
Fontmort, Plan de, 61
Ford, Ford Madox, 209
Fourier, Charles, 227
Fouzilhac, 28, 29
France: RLS in, 14-63; MW in, 94-130; Wordsworth in, 75, 79-85;see also place names
Françoise, 74, 214-16, 235, 268, 275
French Revolution, 1789-94, 75, 88;1790-2, witnessed by Wordsworth, 79-86, 89; 1792-5, witnessed by MW, 95-106, 110-13, 115-16, 117-19, 123, 128; Maximum Laws, 106, 110, 128; English Romanticattitude to, 76-7, 86, 89; relapsefrom, 77-8, 127-8; final Englishimpact of, 131
French Revolution, 1968, 73, 74-6, 77, 78, 87-8
Fuseli, Henry, 93-4, 95
Gautier, Théophile, 224, 234, 254, 270; early career, and Nerval, 212-13, 221, 223; relations with Nerval, 213, 259-60; in Doyenné, 228-9; abroad with Nerval, 230-1; writesof Nerval, 214, 221, 229, 230-1, 239, 243-4, 245, 248, 263; letters to Nerval, 231-2, 268-9, 272-3; openletters, 246-7; on Nerval’s madness, 235, 236, 237, 248; Nerval writes of, 259; at Nerval’s death, 261; face, 205, 210; parents, 221, 223, 238; house, 217
Mlle de Maupin, 233; La Péri, 232, 246-7
Genlis, Stéphanie de, 95
German Army, 272
Germany, Nerval in, 231, 251, 257
Gévaudan, 23, 25, 26, 28-9; Beast of, 24-5
Girondists, 82, 83, 84; MW and, 94-5, 102-3, 128; arrested, 96, 106
Gisborne, John and Maria, letters to: from Mary Shelley, 171, 192-3; from PBS, 175, 176-7
Godwin, Mary (later Mrs PBS), seeShelley, Mary
Godwin, Mary (née Wollstonecraft), seeWollstonecraft, Mary
Godwin, William: and revolution, 77-8, 104; and MW, 92, 120, 130, 131; Memoir of MW, 95, 108, 110; edits MW’s works, 120-1; and PBS, 141; Political Justice, 77
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 222;Faust, trans, by Claire Clairmont, 195; by Nerval, 222
Goudet, 20-1
Gouges, Olympe de (Marie Gouze), 95, 110
Gounod, Charles Francois, 251
Grez-sur-Loing, 39, 40, 42-3
Guevara, Che, 76
Guiccioli, Teresa, 177
Hamilton-Rowan, Archie, 124-5, 130
Hazlitt, William, 76-8; The Spirit of the Age, 76-8
Hemingway, Ernest, A Moveable Feast, 201
Hogg, Thomas Jefferson, 142-3, 155
Hoppner, Richard Belgrave, 157
Houssaye, Arsène, 228
Hugo, Victor, 221, 222, 223, 238;Hernani, 223, 224
Hunt, Leigh, 142-3, 185, 189, 190; Mary Shelley’s letter to, 188
Ile de France: villages, 263; see alsoValois
imagination: internalised, Nerval’s, 236; powers of, MW, 126-7; andreason, 86, 87-8, 127, 131-2; andrevolution, 86, 87-8, 127-8; PBS, rebirth of, 165
Imlay, Fanny: birth, 118-19; infancy, 119-23, 124, 125, 130; death, 130, 141
Imlay, Gilbert: and French Revolution, 102, 106; trading scheme for, 111-112; relations with MW, 102-3, 105-16, 117-18, 120; registers MW as wife, 111; at Le Havre-Marat with MW, 117-18, 120;
Imlay, Gilbert—contd.
leaves MW at Le Havre-Marat, 123-4; reunited, 124; as father, 121-3; in London, 125-6, 129, 130; subject of play by MW, 131; writings, 102-3
Italy, 136-9; Nerval in, 230, 247, 273-274; PBS in, 138, 139-98; see also place names
Jackson, Rev William, 89
James Henry, 174, 209
Janin, Jules, 222, 224, 241; mock-obit. of Nerval, 239; Nerval’s replies to, 240-1, 242-3; letter to Nerval, 250; reviews L’Imagier, 252
Jeunes-France, the, 223, 239
Johnson, Joseph, 89, 90; and Girondists, 90, 94; and MW, 91-2, 93, 95, 96, 130; letters from MW, 100, 101; publishes MW, 118, 120
Jones, Robert, 79
Journal de Constantinople, Le, 246-7
Journal des Débats, 239-41
Karr, Alphonse, 203, 270
Keats, John, 150, 211
Kentish Town, Shelleys in, 155
Kerouac, Jack, 13, 66-7
Labrunie, Etienne: career and marriage, 217-19; and son (Nerval), 218-19, 222, 223, 224, 227, 229, 233-4, 238; when Nerval mad, 238-9; letters from Nerval, 231, 232-3, 244, 247, 257-8
Labrunie, Gérard, see Nerval, Gérardde
Labrunie, Mme (aunt of Nerval), 261
Labrunie, Marguerite (née Laurent):marriage and death, 217-18, 219; letters to son (Nerval), 217, 265
Laing, R. D., 236-7
Lamartine, Alphonse de, 234
Landos, 23
Langogne, 23, 24, 25-7; bridge, 26, 27, 67
Laurent, Eugenie, 222
Laurent, Marguerite, see Labrunie, Marguerite
Le Bleymard, 50-1
Le Bouchet, 21, 22
Leclerc, Edmond, 242
Le Havre-Marat, MW at, 112, 114-24, 129-30
Le Monastier, 13-15, 16-17, 18
Lérici, 137-9, 188, 194-5; harbour, 137-8, 183-4; see also San Terenzo
L’Estampe, 50
Liberal, The, 185
Livorno, Shelleys at, 154, 159, 175-7, 188, 191
lobsters, significance of, 212-16
Loisy (Valois), 220
London magazine, 45, 47
Low, William, 39, 42
Luc, 30
Mars, Mont, 48-9, 61
Marx, Karl, 88, 227
Mason, Mrs (Countess Margaret Lady Montcashell), 160, 183
Maupassant, Guy de, 251
Medwin, Tom, 179, 180
Méry, Joseph, 251, 252
Mimente, valley, 50, 59-61
Mirecourt, Eugène de, biography of Nerval, 260
Monde Dramatique, Le, 228, 229, 243-4
Monica, 166-7, 169
Montvert, Pont de, 55-7
Moravians, 58
Morin, Edgar, 88
Mortefontaine (Valois), 217-18, 219-20, 221, 222, 226, 242, 253
Mousquetaire, Le, 255-6
Murger, Henry, 233, 238; photograph, 205; Scènes de la Vie de Bohème, 233
Musset, Alfred de, Confession d’un Enfant du Siècle, 226
Nadar, Felix (Tournachon), 203-4, 209-10, 214; and Nerval, 203, 209, 210, 254, 259-60; personality, 209; photographs by, 204-7, 208-9;Quand j’é tais photographe, 210 Naples: Nerval in, 230, 247, 273-4; suicide attempt at Posilippo, 270, 273-4; PBS in, 140, 141-2, 170-1, 172; his “Neapolitan charge”, 170-177
Nerval, Gérard de: childhood and education, 217-20, 221; early publications, 221-2, 224; wild life in Paris, 223-4, 228-9; inheritance, 227-9, 230; theatrical aspirations, 224, 228, 229, 251-2; travel, 229-35, 251, 252; to East, 244-7; early suicide attempts, 269-71, 273-5; return to Paris, 247-8; madness, 235-9, 243, 244, 249, 251, 253-5, 258, 259-60; in asylum, 266; attacked in print by Janin, 239; replies, 239-41, 242-3; by Champfleury, 252; by Dumas, 256; suicide, 210, 216, 261-2, 269; papers surviving, 265
L’Académie, 221; L’Alchimiste, 229;Amours de Vienne, 232; Aurélia, 220, 243, 249, 251, 259, 260-1, 263-4, 265, 266, 267-8, 269; “Chansons et Légendes du Valois”, 250-1; Le Chariot d’Enfant, 251; Les Chimères, 226, 257, 267, 270; Le Christ aux Oliviers, 257; Confessions Galantes…(projected), 231; “La Cousine”, 225; “El Desdichado”, 210-11, 255-6, 267; Elégies Nationales, 221;Faust, trans., 222; “Fantaisie”, 225-6; Les Filles du Feu, 256; “LaGrandmère, 222, 225; Les Illuminés, 220, 250, 251; L’Imagier de Harlem, 251, 252; Lara, 224; Leo Burckhart, 229, 231; Mes Prisons, 224; Les Monténégrins, 251; Les Nuits d’Octobre, 254-5; Octavie, 244, 256-257, 265, 270-1; Pandora, 232, 256;Les Petits Châteaux de Bohème, 228, 259; Piquillo, 229, 243, 244; Prince des Sots, 224; Promenades et Souvenirs, 257, 265; La Reine de Saba, 224; Le Rêve et la Vie, 261; Un Roman à Faire, 244; Scènes de la Vie Orientales, 248;Sylvie, 225, 226, 227, 253, 255, 265;Voyage en Orient, 234-5, 244, 245, 250
appearance and photograph, 210, 268-9; personality, 262, 263-4; names, 241-3, 263; and Jenny Colon, 243-4, 251, 264-5; and father, 218-19, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227, 229, 233-4, 238-9, 258-9; and Gautier, see under Gautier, Théophile; and Nadar, 203, 209, 210, 254, 259-60; lost mother, 267; and women, 230, 231, 232, 243-4, 273-4; isolation, 238-9, 274; journalism, 212-13, 234; reliterary career and money, 232-4; mythology and symbols, 212-16, 221, 249, 250, 262-3, 267-8; religion, 220-1; as Romantic figure, 213-14, 262-3
Nerval, dos de (Valois), 220, 242
Neuilly, 107-9, 111, 112
Nîmes, Nerval in, 247-8
Norway, MW in, 132
Notre Dame des Neiges (monastery):RLS at, 29, 31-4, 36-9; today, 34-36
Old St Pancras Church, 131
Ollier, Dr, 16
O’Meara, Frank, 39, 42
Opie, Amelia, A Wife’s Duty, 113
Opie, John, 131
Orientalism, 234
Osbourne, Belle, 41, 42, 43
Osbourne, Fanny (née Vandergrift; later Mrs RLS): early life, 40-1; first marriage, 41-3; in Europe, 41-4; meets RLS, 39, 43; nurses RLS, 44; in London, 44-5; returnsto USA, 47-8; relations with RLS, 44-6, 47-8, 54-5, 56, 62, 63, 64; marriage to RLS, 40, 65; appearanceand personality, 40, 41-2, 45
Osbourne, Hervey, 41, 42
Osbourne, Lloyd, 41, 42, 43, 47
Osbourne, Sam, 41, 42, 43
Paddington, lodgings in, 73
Padua, PBS in, 157
Paine, Tom, 92, 94; in Paris, 86, 89, 100, 106; imprisoned, 111, 115, 118
Palmaria, island, 138
Paris: in French Revolution, see French Revolution; Osbournes in, 42, 43, 44; Second Empire, 209; early photographers in, 202-7; Nervalin, 219, 221-4, 228-9, 235-41, 251-2, 254, 260-1; Nerval writesof, 254-5; 1968 disturbances, 73, 74-6, 77, 78, 87-8; 1973, 201-2, 207-8, 210-11, 235, 269, 275; Bibliothèque Royale (Nationale), 222, 267; Doyenne, 228-9; Ecole Normale Supérieure, 207; Lycée Charlemagne, 219, 221; Paris Opera, 246-7; Théâtre Français, 223
past, the: distance, 27; speaking of one’s own, 207-8; traces remaining, 67-8; see also biography
Peacock, Thomas Love, Nightmare Abbey, 181
Pellegrini, Maria, 148; son, 149, 150
photographs, 149-50; attitude of subjectsto, 210; and biography, 178-9, 202-3, 204-5; early portraits, 202-3, 204-7
Pisa: Palazzo Lanfranchi, 178; PBS in, 11, 140, 159, 160, 171, 177-80; TreDonzelle Inn, 144
Plymouth Brethren, 58, 59
Presse, La: Gautier writes for, 212, 214, 231, 233; Nerval writes for, 212, 229, 231, 251; “open letter”from Gautier to Nerval in, 246, 247
Proust, Marcel, 212, 225, 253
pseudonyms, 241
Rearden, Timothy, 41, 43
reason, and imagination, 86, 87-8, 127, 131-2
Renduel (publisher), 222
revolution: classic, 88; and imagination, 86, 87-8, 127-8; and Romantics, 76-7, 127-8; PBS, 151-2; and Virtue, 104; see alsoFrench Revolution