Nervous biography

Gerard de Nerval. The playwright, poet, translator, writer and traveler Gerard de Nerval. The playwright, poet, translator, writer and traveler his name, or rather, the pseudonym is widely known in France and the French -speaking countries, but much less in the rest of the world. However, in Russia, once not indifferent to the francophone culture, they still knew about it, albeit a few.

His fate is strange, tragic, full of rumors and speculation. Gerard de Nerval, whose real name is Gerard Labruni, was born on May 22 in Paris, in the family of a military doctor, a surgeon of Bonaparte's army. It was a time of Napoleonic wars, therefore, when the mother of two -year -old Gerard died, she was buried in Germany, where the military medic's family was then.

However, the childhood and youth of the future eccentric writer passed already in his homeland, in France. There, at first, he tried to learn from the doctor, following the family tradition, but quickly quit his studies, carried away by a fashionable prose then. In addition, in addition to the wave of interest in literature, society then especially revered travel. The industrial and technological revolution was in full swing, along with inventions and discoveries, the transport situation changed and interest in the lands less accessible before the corners of the Earth.

The genre of the 3rd novel was still at the peak. So, the young writer, who made his acquaintance with Theophile Gauthier, Viktor Hugo, George Sand and Ferenz List, tried not to yield to eminent talented contemporaries. At the age of 20, being a passionate fan of Goethe, he published a translation of the first part of Faust, who delighted the author himself.

The translation was as accurate as colorful. Subsequently, all the work of the nervous can be characterized by two of these epithets. In any book of any country where French speaks, you can find a volume of poems or plays of a nervous in any book of any country where they speak French, you can find a volume of poems or nervous plays, he completely joined the company of talented colleagues, engaged in translations, poems and plays.

At one time, the nervous was even a member of the “brigade” who wrote for A. Dumas the father adventure novels-yes, and then such a practice existed. The translation of "Faust", which the author carried out before the end of the lyceum, brought the student fame in all of France. He met representatives of the Parisian bohemia and famous artists and continued his literary activity.

In combination with talents and a non -standard, frankly, behavior, the nervous fit remarkably into the French creative environment of the first third of the 19th century. Alas, a subtle mental organization, a violent fantasy and inexhaustible energy were not just a sign of time, fashion for exalted behavior and other external factors. Although at first the strange behavior of the writer was perceived in this way, even giving him the nickname "Tender Gerard." And, if in his youth this could go for the "burning" of youth, then after reaching the age of thirty, he began to raise questions.

Inadequate acts sharply manifested by the age of 33, when his many years of wanderings began on psychiatric hospitals. Often these were hallucinations, ideas of influence - a sense of influence of foreign power. The writer often noted that he felt his body with electrified, "capable of overturning everything." The description contains elements of the Manichaean delirium: the struggle of two spirits, good and evil, and in the center of this struggle is usually the patient himself.

These disorders, accompanied by the experience of ecstasy or horror, are characteristic of the onyroid dreaming dug of consciousness. All this together are signs of acute schizophrenic psychosis, which periodically arose among the writer. The patients were no longer kept on the chains, but the ice was used on their heads or binding. However, in the breaks between the attacks, the nervous calmly lived outside the hospital.

Although surprising the neighbors and passers -by with their oddities. Psychiatric hospital, XIXV. So, from the relatively harmless oddities of Gerard, there was such - he adored the lobsters. But, being a convinced vegetarian, he did not mean their taste. He was convinced that these crustaceans are reasonable and completely charming. Moreover, they know all the secrets of the ocean, and hence the universe itself.

Therefore, to use them in food, at least, terribly and almost borders on cannibalism. The mayor of La Rosheli once made a classic a strict reprimand, hoping to protect his restaurateurs from his outlets. De Nerval stopped the theft, but remained with his opinion: to boil such a noble creature - barbarism.

Once the writer could not resist and stuck to himself the lobster pithela, to whom he gave the name Tibo. Like a beloved dog, he walked his “friend” on a leash, pacing with him along the streets of Paris. Naturally, people who met a strange couple were shocked. And Gerard wrote poems that were addressed to the pet.Moreover, feeling almost healthy at first, although the cessation of painful sensations was perceived by him as the loss of some creative impulse: “However, recovering, I lost this fleeting insight that allowed me to understand my comrades in the misfortune of patients of a psychiatric clinic.

The travels of the nervous in the Middle East and after - Germany - vividly and colorfully described by him in a number of books: “Scenes of Eastern Life”, “Travel to the East”, “Lorels”. The French colonial policy opened the doors to the east of the French colonial policy opened the doors to Europeans east, just as the talented translations once made up the glory of the young writer, the descriptions of the travels gave an additional charm of his activities in adulthood.

And true - there was something special in his travel novels, and you can see this by taking one of his books about trips. On the one hand, you seem to plunge into detailed ethnographic notes. In detail, rationally with meticulousness, describing all the wayshots. On the other hand, you find yourself the main character of the fascinating adventure novel, whose voice seemed to be voiced by a sunset text.

And you are his author. The Holy Land, the Janissaries, Mameluks, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druzhsky customs of more than one territory - all this was attracted by both the nervous, and its compatriots the Holy Land, the Janissaries, the Mamelukes, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Dear Customs of more than the same territory - all this mannered and its compatriots and the direct participant in the events.

Among which the surprises found on the path of each wanderer, and the meeting of two different worlds - the native to the author and the new one, which he sees. And the love lyrics, and the “difficulties of translation”, and religious differences in the places that the reader visits with the author. He explained this understandable, in general, to everyone, he explained the desire to get rid of anxiety, to come into a state of mental balance.

Which happened - during the trip and a short period immediately after it. Indeed, upon his return, he immediately found himself in the whirlpool of invitations, balls and secular dinners, where, being a welcome guest, he colorfully talked about his travels. Over time, having wasted considerable funds to travel, bored with a saturated and very cruel society, the nervous was thrown out of the board of public attention.

The day before, he ran around Paris, asked to lend him some specific insignificant amount and did not take anymore. At night, he knocked on the night on the street of the old lantern. The hostess did not let him in, began to scold him. He fell silent. And in the morning he was found hanging on the heating grate at the same overnight stay. It happened on January 26 of the year.

Despite the disease, the nervous has retained creative abilities, as evidenced by at least its bright descriptions of his own painful experiences. In Russia, they learned about him mainly thanks to the art critic and translator Pavel Pavlovich Muratov, who, after the death of the nervous, “discovered” him for critics, for readers of our country. Later he was translated by Valery Bryusov.

Charles Bodler wrote about the year about the nervous year: “Today, January 26, exactly a year - since one writer of delightful honesty, a high mind who has always been in a clear consciousness, quietly left, without disturbing anyone ... To release his soul to the will, on the darkest street that he managed to find ...”