Gaspard de la Nuit (poetry collection)
Le Livre de Poche edition (2002) | |
| Author | Aloysius Bertrand |
|---|---|
| Translator | Paul Zweig John T. Wright Donald Sidney-Fryer |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Prose poetry, Dark romanticism |
Publication date | 1842 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1964 (Lettres Modernes) 1977 (University Press) 2004 (Black Coat Press) |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 164 (original) |
Gaspard de la Nuit — Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot (English: Gaspard of the Night — Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callot) is the compilation of prose poems by Italian-born French poet Aloysius Bertrand. Considered one of the first examples of modern prose poetry, it was published in the year 1842, one year after Bertrand's death from tuberculosis, as a manuscript dated 1836, by his friend David d'Angers. The text includes a short address to Victor Hugo and another to Charles Nodier, and a Memoir of Bertrand written by Sainte-Beuve was included in the original 1842 edition.
The poems themselves are expressed with a strong romanticist verve, and explore fantasies of medieval Europe.