Aloysius Bertrand

Aloysius Bertrand
Self-portrait by Bertrand
Born
Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand

(1807-04-20)20 April 1807
Ceva, Piedmont, France (now in Italy)
Died29 April 1841(1841-04-29) (aged 34)
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Poet, playwright, journalist
Notable workGaspard de la Nuit

Louis Jacques Napoléon Bertrand, better known by his pen name Aloysius Bertrand (20 April 1807 — 29 April 1841), was a French Romantic poet, playwright and journalist. He is famous for having introduced prose poetry in French literature,[1] and is considered a forerunner of the Symbolist movement. His masterpiece is the collection of prose poems Gaspard de la Nuit published posthumously in 1842; three of its poems were adapted to an eponymous piano suite by Maurice Ravel in 1908.

  1. ^ Stuart Friebert and David Young (eds.) Models of the Universe: An Anthology of the Prose Poem. (1995)