Gaspard de la Nuit (poetry collection)

Gaspard de la Nuit
Le Livre de Poche edition (2002)
AuthorAloysius Bertrand
TranslatorPaul Zweig
John T. Wright
Donald Sidney-Fryer
LanguageFrench
GenreProse poetry, Dark romanticism
Publication date
1842
Publication placeFrance
Published in English
1964 (Lettres Modernes)
1977 (University Press)
2004 (Black Coat Press)
Media typePrint
Pages164 (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,[1] 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.

  1. ^ See Bertrand Guégan (Ed.), Gaspard de la Nuit, Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot par Aloysius Bertrand. Edition publiée d'après le manuscrit de l'auteur. With a biographical introduction by Sainte-Beuve. (Payot, Paris 1925), p. 1. The MS title page includes an imprimatur for Eugéne Renduel, Libraire-Editeur, Rue des Grands-Augustins, 22 and the date 1836.