The Romantic poet Aloysius Bertrand is mainly known as the author of a beautifully crafted collection of poems, Gaspard de la nuit. This book introduced France to what would become a new and extraordinarily fruitful literary genre: the prose poem. However Bertrand, truly an emblematic “poète maudit” (cursed poet), was never able to capitalize on this original work as it was published posthumously in 1842, one year after his untimely death. Despite having been admitted to the literary salons of such pre-eminent figures as Charles Nodier and Victor Hugo, he led an existence of relative obscurity as a journalist in Dijon and in Paris, often working for less than a subsistence wage;…
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Citation: Ippolito, Christophe. "Aloysius Bertrand". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 March 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12038, accessed 21 November 2024.]
