“A story that is familiar yet still mesmerizing, painful but classic. “

This short read (recommended by no less than Umberto Eco) took me by surprise. At first glance a simple French romantic tale, the narrator’s abysmal lifestyle and attitude towards the women in his life, his failure to understand the nature of his location (despite his solid but urbane education), his classic angst of accelerating loss of past (and along with this memory, idealism, naivete, and understanding of nature’s mystic qualities) . . . all work together to create an ephemeral and powerfully magical read.

It’s clear early on that our narrator’s obsessions with “ideal beauty” are not merely unrealistic. But as he slips narratively from reverie to reverie, spinning in equal parts romanticized memories and fantasies to come, readers find themselves swept along in his emotional dialogue, finding ourselves too often guilty of similar near-sightedness even while we condemn it in the tale. The women, at least, see the world (and him) clearly enough.

Nerval’s frequent allusions to philosophy, art, and song all play a major role in creating a story that is familiar yet still mesmerizing, painful but classic. I suspect I will read this many times to unearth more of what Nerval is up to on this level.