Footsteps

  For endless encouragement, expert help and inexplicable good humour my warmest thanks are due to Richard Cohen, a prince among editors; to Catherine Carver, for her sensitive reading and advice; to Elisabeth Sifton, for her patience and enthusiasm; and as ever to my old friend and advisor Peter Janson-Smith.

  I have been greatly helped through the generosity of the Society of Authors; Ismena Holland; and Philip Howard of The Times, whose memo, “Dear Richard, where are you?”still travels with me. The Bridge House Factor has never failed.

  Finally I should like to greet those friends whose kindness kept me together, in good weather and bad, at home and abroad. Some of them appear lightly disguised in this book, though none under their own names: Peter Jay of the Anvil Press; Sophie Vial of Marie-France; Pierre Voisin of the Librarie Sorbonne; Robert and Laurence de Bosmelet; Damon and Marie-Solange Pollard-Dubois; Françoise Dasques of IBM; and Alan Judd of Rovers International. To them all, the seventh card, the Chariot.

  Richard Holmes

  London, 26 January 1985

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Note: PBS refers to Percy Bysshe Shelley; RLS refersto Robert Louis Stevenson; MW refers to Mary Wollstonecraft.

  Adam-Salomon, Antoine Samuel, 202, 203

  Alfredo, 167-70

  Antwerp, 42

  Apollinaris, Father, 31-2, 34, 37

  Arnold, Matthew, on Shelley, 152, 182, 197-8

  Auden, W. H., 205

  Aussandon, Dr, 251

  Backman, Elias, 112

  Bagni di Lucca, 144-50, 156

  Balzac, Honoré de, 224, 229, 233, 242, 257

  Barlow, Joel, 117; in Paris, 102, 104, 106-7, 111-12; writings, and White’s Hotel group, 89

  Barlow, Ruth, 112, 117; and MW, 102, 106, 115; MW’s letters to, 104-5, 118, 119

  Bastille prison, 80

  Baudelaire, Charles, 210, 233, 238; and Gautier, 247; on photography, 202; photographs of, 205-7

  Beaupuy, Michel, 82, 85

  Belgium, Nerval in, 230-1

  Bell, George, 252, 259

  Beresina river, French army crosses, 218

  Berlioz, Hector, La Damnation de Faust, 222

  Bernhardt, Sarah, photograph, 205

  biography, writing, 27, 66-9, 115-16, 119-20, 130-1, 135-6, 249; artform?, 202; autobiography, 55, 207-8; “central consciousness”, 208-9; focusing effect, 114, 148; intimacy, 66, 120, 143-4, 173-4; objectivity, 67-9; photographycompared with, 150, 178-9, 202-3, 204-5; and possibilities, 168; andprivacy, 207-8; process of, 27, 66-69; self-identification with subject, problem of, 66-7, 264-5; and time, 179; trust in character, 173-5; see also past, the

  Blake, William, 76

  Blanche, Dr Emile, 251-2, 255, 257, 258-9; Nerval’s letters to, 257, 258, 260; account of Nerval’s death, 261-2

  Blanche, Dr Esprit, 236, 237, 239, 251

  Blois, Wordsworth at, 81-2

  Blood, Fanny, 94, 119

  Bojti, Dr, 159

  Borel, Petrus, 223

  Boris, 167-70

  Boucher, Antoine, 217, 219-21, 265

  Boucher, Mme (grandmother of Nerval), 222

  Bregantz, Aline (Mme Fillietaz), seeFillietaz family

  Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre, 95, 102, 106

  Brussels, Nerval in, 229, 231, 243, 244

  Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 137, 146; and Claire Clairmont, 141, 155-6; and daughter Allegra, 141, 144, 155; and PBS, 138, 156, 177, 184, 185, 195; villas of, 144, 145, 146, 154, 178

  CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), 78

  Cairo, 167; Nerval at, 244, 245, 246

  Camisards, the, 48-9, 61, 63-4

  Carlyle, Thomas, 97

  Casssagnas, 60-1

  Cazotte, Jacques, 248, 250; Diable Amoureux, 248

  Cévennes, storms of the, 25

  Champfleury, Jules, 252

  Chantilly (Valois), 271-3; château, 226; Les Fontaines, 271-2, 273; Lovenjoul Library, 270, 271, 272

  character, human, consistency of, 173-175, 260

  Charpentier (publisher), 235

  Chastel, Jean, 24, 25

  Chateaubriand, François René, Vicomte de, 233, 234

  Chatterton, Thomas, 73, 224

  Cheylard, 29, 30

  Chiappa, Villa dei, 144, 146-50

  Clairmont, Allegra, 140, 149, 155, 156, 171; with Byron, 141, 144; Clairevisits, 156, 157; death, 184, 187

  Clairmont, Claire, 136, 137, 140; in Kentish Town, 1814-15, 155-6; and Byron, 155-6, 195; in Italy with Shelleys, 142, 144, 145, 146; alone with PBS, 1818, 156-7, 170; letter from PBS, 1818, 158-9; mother of Elena?, 170-7; in Rome, 163-5; away from PBS, in Florence, 159-62, 179-80; at Casa Magni, 160, 184, 188, 189, 191, 194, 195; leaves Italy, 154-5; papers surviving, 182; and daughter Allegra, 149, 155, 171, 184; visits Allegra, 156, 157; and Mary Shelley, 172, 176, 183, 191, 194; relations with PBS, 151, 152, 153-4, 155-62, 163-165, 174, 179-83, 187, 195; attractiveness, 181; journal, 154-5, 163-164, 165, 175-6; trans. Faust, 195

  Clarisse (inn servant), 55-6

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 76, 77, 85;Biographia Literaria, 126

  Colon, Jenny, 229, 243-4, 251, 264, 265

  Colvin, Sidney, 43, 44, 45, 63, 64

  communes, 76, 181; Paris Student, 88

  community, PBS’s view of, 142-3

  Condorcet, Marie Jean, Marquis de, 94, 95, 103, 106

  Connolly, Cyril, 209, 278

  Constantinople, Nerval in, 245-7

  Corday, Charlotte, 110

  Costaros, 21-2

  Courbet, Gustave, The Artist’s Atelier, 206

  Crèspy family, 13-15, 16

  Curran, Aemilia, 165

  Danton, Georges Jacques, 117

  Dawes, Sophie (Duchesse de Feuchère), 226, 267

  De Gaulle, Charles, 75

  Delacroix, Ferdinand Eugène, Femmes d’Alger, 234

  de Quincey, Thomas, 76

  Deschamps, Anthony, 239, 240

  Desmoulins, Camille, 117

  dogs, 60, 275

  donkeys, 16-17; Modestine, 17, 18, 19-20, 28, 50, 52-3, 62

  doppdgänger. Nerval, 263-4; PBS, 195-196 Doré, Gustave, photograph, 205

  dreams, 26-7, 30, 143, 150-1; PBS’s, 192-7

  du Camp, Maxime, 203

  du Condé, Duc, 226, 271

  du Goulet, Montagne, 50

  Dumas, Alexandre: collaborates with Nerval, 222, 229, 231; publishes”El Desdichado” and attacks Nerval in print, 255-6; and Nerval’s collected works, 256-7; La Tour de Nesle, 224

  Dusetgneur, Jehan, 223

  Duval, Jean, 206

  Edinburgh, RLS in, 15, 32, 45

  Egypt, Nerval in, 244, 245, 246-7

  Eliot, T. S., The Waste Land, 212, 268

  Elise (nurse), see Foggi, Elise

  Este, Villa Capuccini, PBS at, 156-7, 172

  Feuchère, Duchesse de (SophieDawes), 226, 267

  Fillietaz family, 95, 97, 102, 106, 107

  Finiels, Pic de, 52-5

  Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 89

  Florac, 19, 59

  Florence, 175; Claire Clairmont in, 159, 161, 174, 180

  Foggi, Elise (nurse), 156-7, 171, 172, 173, 174

  Foggi, Paolo (manservant), 144, 172, 175-6, 177 Fonfrède, Joseph, 234, 245

  Fontmort, Plan de, 61

  Ford, Ford Madox, 209

  Fourier, Charles, 227

  Fouzilhac, 28, 29

  France: RLS in, 14-63; MW in, 94-130; Wordsworth in, 75, 79-85;see also place names

  Françoise, 74, 214-16, 235, 268, 275

  French Revolution, 1789-94, 75, 88;1790-2, witnessed by Wordsworth, 79-86, 89; 1792-5, witnessed by MW, 95-106, 110-13, 115-16, 117-19, 123, 128; Maximum Laws, 106, 110, 128; English Romanticattitude to, 76-7, 86, 89; relapsefrom, 77-8, 127-8; final Englishimpact of, 131

  French Revolution, 1968, 73, 74-6, 77, 78, 87-8

 
Fuseli, Henry, 93-4, 95

  Gautier, Théophile, 224, 234, 254, 270; early career, and Nerval, 212-13, 221, 223; relations with Nerval, 213, 259-60; in Doyenné, 228-9; abroad with Nerval, 230-1; writesof Nerval, 214, 221, 229, 230-1, 239, 243-4, 245, 248, 263; letters to Nerval, 231-2, 268-9, 272-3; openletters, 246-7; on Nerval’s madness, 235, 236, 237, 248; Nerval writes of, 259; at Nerval’s death, 261; face, 205, 210; parents, 221, 223, 238; house, 217

  Mlle de Maupin, 233; La Péri, 232, 246-7

  Genlis, Stéphanie de, 95

  German Army, 272

  Germany, Nerval in, 231, 251, 257

  Gévaudan, 23, 25, 26, 28-9; Beast of, 24-5

  Girondists, 82, 83, 84; MW and, 94-5, 102-3, 128; arrested, 96, 106

  Gisborne, John and Maria, letters to: from Mary Shelley, 171, 192-3; from PBS, 175, 176-7

  Godwin, Mary (later Mrs PBS), seeShelley, Mary

  Godwin, Mary (née Wollstonecraft), seeWollstonecraft, Mary

  Godwin, William: and revolution, 77-8, 104; and MW, 92, 120, 130, 131; Memoir of MW, 95, 108, 110; edits MW’s works, 120-1; and PBS, 141; Political Justice, 77

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 222;Faust, trans, by Claire Clairmont, 195; by Nerval, 222

  Goudet, 20-1

  Gouges, Olympe de (Marie Gouze), 95, 110

  Gounod, Charles Francois, 251

  Grez-sur-Loing, 39, 40, 42-3

  Guevara, Che, 76

  Guiccioli, Teresa, 177

  Hamilton-Rowan, Archie, 124-5, 130

  Hazlitt, William, 76-8; The Spirit of the Age, 76-8

  Hemingway, Ernest, A Moveable Feast, 201

  Hogg, Thomas Jefferson, 142-3, 155

  Hoppner, Richard Belgrave, 157

  Houssaye, Arsène, 228

  Hugo, Victor, 221, 222, 223, 238;Hernani, 223, 224

  Hunt, Leigh, 142-3, 185, 189, 190; Mary Shelley’s letter to, 188

  Ile de France: villages, 263; see alsoValois

  imagination: internalised, Nerval’s, 236; powers of, MW, 126-7; andreason, 86, 87-8, 127, 131-2; andrevolution, 86, 87-8, 127-8; PBS, rebirth of, 165

  Imlay, Fanny: birth, 118-19; infancy, 119-23, 124, 125, 130; death, 130, 141

  Imlay, Gilbert: and French Revolution, 102, 106; trading scheme for, 111-112; relations with MW, 102-3, 105-16, 117-18, 120; registers MW as wife, 111; at Le Havre-Marat with MW, 117-18, 120;

  Imlay, Gilbert—contd.

  leaves MW at Le Havre-Marat, 123-4; reunited, 124; as father, 121-3; in London, 125-6, 129, 130; subject of play by MW, 131; writings, 102-3

  Italy, 136-9; Nerval in, 230, 247, 273-274; PBS in, 138, 139-98; see also place names

  Jackson, Rev William, 89

  James Henry, 174, 209

  Janin, Jules, 222, 224, 241; mock-obit. of Nerval, 239; Nerval’s replies to, 240-1, 242-3; letter to Nerval, 250; reviews L’Imagier, 252

  Jeunes-France, the, 223, 239

  Johnson, Joseph, 89, 90; and Girondists, 90, 94; and MW, 91-2, 93, 95, 96, 130; letters from MW, 100, 101; publishes MW, 118, 120

  Jones, Robert, 79

  Journal de Constantinople, Le, 246-7

  Journal des Débats, 239-41

  Karr, Alphonse, 203, 270

  Keats, John, 150, 211

  Kentish Town, Shelleys in, 155

  Kerouac, Jack, 13, 66-7

  Labrunie, Etienne: career and marriage, 217-19; and son (Nerval), 218-19, 222, 223, 224, 227, 229, 233-4, 238; when Nerval mad, 238-9; letters from Nerval, 231, 232-3, 244, 247, 257-8

  Labrunie, Gérard, see Nerval, Gérardde

  Labrunie, Mme (aunt of Nerval), 261

  Labrunie, Marguerite (née Laurent):marriage and death, 217-18, 219; letters to son (Nerval), 217, 265

  Laing, R. D., 236-7

  Lamartine, Alphonse de, 234

  Landos, 23

  Langogne, 23, 24, 25-7; bridge, 26, 27, 67

  Laurent, Eugenie, 222

  Laurent, Marguerite, see Labrunie, Marguerite

  Le Bleymard, 50-1

  Le Bouchet, 21, 22

  Leclerc, Edmond, 242

  Le Havre-Marat, MW at, 112, 114-24, 129-30

  Le Monastier, 13-15, 16-17, 18

  Lérici, 137-9, 188, 194-5; harbour, 137-8, 183-4; see also San Terenzo

  L’Estampe, 50

  Liberal, The, 185

  Livorno, Shelleys at, 154, 159, 175-7, 188, 191

  lobsters, significance of, 212-16

  Loisy (Valois), 220

  London magazine, 45, 47

  Louis XVI, King of France, in Revolution, 75, 82, 83, 96, 97-8, 99; journeys to Tuileries, 100

  Low, William, 39, 42

  Luc, 30

  Mars, Mont, 48-9, 61

  Marx, Karl, 88, 227

  Mason, Mrs (Countess Margaret Lady Montcashell), 160, 183

  Maupassant, Guy de, 251

  Medwin, Tom, 179, 180

  Méry, Joseph, 251, 252

  Mimente, valley, 50, 59-61

  Mirecourt, Eugène de, biography of Nerval, 260

  Monde Dramatique, Le, 228, 229, 243-4

  Monica, 166-7, 169

  Montvert, Pont de, 55-7

  Moravians, 58

  Morin, Edgar, 88

  Mortefontaine (Valois), 217-18, 219-20, 221, 222, 226, 242, 253

  Mousquetaire, Le, 255-6

  Murger, Henry, 233, 238; photograph, 205; Scènes de la Vie de Bohème, 233

  Musset, Alfred de, Confession d’un Enfant du Siècle, 226

  Nadar, Felix (Tournachon), 203-4, 209-10, 214; and Nerval, 203, 209, 210, 254, 259-60; personality, 209; photographs by, 204-7, 208-9;Quand j’é tais photographe, 210 Naples: Nerval in, 230, 247, 273-4; suicide attempt at Posilippo, 270, 273-4; PBS in, 140, 141-2, 170-1, 172; his “Neapolitan charge”, 170-177

  Nerval, Gérard de: childhood and education, 217-20, 221; early publications, 221-2, 224; wild life in Paris, 223-4, 228-9; inheritance, 227-9, 230; theatrical aspirations, 224, 228, 229, 251-2; travel, 229-35, 251, 252; to East, 244-7; early suicide attempts, 269-71, 273-5; return to Paris, 247-8; madness, 235-9, 243, 244, 249, 251, 253-5, 258, 259-60; in asylum, 266; attacked in print by Janin, 239; replies, 239-41, 242-3; by Champfleury, 252; by Dumas, 256; suicide, 210, 216, 261-2, 269; papers surviving, 265

  L’Académie, 221; L’Alchimiste, 229;Amours de Vienne, 232; Aurélia, 220, 243, 249, 251, 259, 260-1, 263-4, 265, 266, 267-8, 269; “Chansons et Légendes du Valois”, 250-1; Le Chariot d’Enfant, 251; Les Chimères, 226, 257, 267, 270; Le Christ aux Oliviers, 257; Confessions Galantes…(projected), 231; “La Cousine”, 225; “El Desdichado”, 210-11, 255-6, 267; Elégies Nationales, 221;Faust, trans., 222; “Fantaisie”, 225-6; Les Filles du Feu, 256; “LaGrandmère, 222, 225; Les Illuminés, 220, 250, 251; L’Imagier de Harlem, 251, 252; Lara, 224; Leo Burckhart, 229, 231; Mes Prisons, 224; Les Monténégrins, 251; Les Nuits d’Octobre, 254-5; Octavie, 244, 256-257, 265, 270-1; Pandora, 232, 256;Les Petits Châteaux de Bohème, 228, 259; Piquillo, 229, 243, 244; Prince des Sots, 224; Promenades et Souvenirs, 257, 265; La Reine de Saba, 224; Le Rêve et la Vie, 261; Un Roman à Faire, 244; Scènes de la Vie Orientales, 248;Sylvie, 225, 226, 227, 253, 255, 265;Voyage en Orient, 234-5, 244, 245, 250

  appearance and photograph, 210, 268-9; personality, 262, 263-4; names, 241-3, 263; and Jenny Colon, 243-4, 251, 264-5; and father, 218-19, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227, 229, 233-4, 238-9, 258-9; and Gautier, see under Gautier, Théophile; and Nadar, 203, 209, 210, 254, 259-60; lost mother, 267; and women, 230, 231, 232, 243-4, 273-4; isolation, 238-9, 274; journalism, 212-13, 234; reliterary career and money, 232-4; mythology and symbols, 212-16, 221, 249, 250, 262-3, 267-8; religion, 220-1; as Romantic figure, 213-14, 262-3

  Nerval, dos de (Valois), 220, 242

  Neuilly, 107-9, 111, 112

  Nîmes, Nerval in, 247-8

  Norway, MW in, 132

  Notre Dame des Neiges (monastery):RLS at, 29, 31-4, 36-9; today, 34-36

  Old St Pancras Church, 131

  Ollier, Dr, 16

  O’Meara, Frank, 39, 42

>   Opie, Amelia, A Wife’s Duty, 113

  Opie, John, 131

  Orientalism, 234

  Osbourne, Belle, 41, 42, 43

  Osbourne, Fanny (née Vandergrift; later Mrs RLS): early life, 40-1; first marriage, 41-3; in Europe, 41-4; meets RLS, 39, 43; nurses RLS, 44; in London, 44-5; returnsto USA, 47-8; relations with RLS, 44-6, 47-8, 54-5, 56, 62, 63, 64; marriage to RLS, 40, 65; appearanceand personality, 40, 41-2, 45

  Osbourne, Hervey, 41, 42

  Osbourne, Lloyd, 41, 42, 43, 47

  Osbourne, Sam, 41, 42, 43

  Paddington, lodgings in, 73

  Padua, PBS in, 157

  Paine, Tom, 92, 94; in Paris, 86, 89, 100, 106; imprisoned, 111, 115, 118

  Palmaria, island, 138

  Paris: in French Revolution, see French Revolution; Osbournes in, 42, 43, 44; Second Empire, 209; early photographers in, 202-7; Nervalin, 219, 221-4, 228-9, 235-41, 251-2, 254, 260-1; Nerval writesof, 254-5; 1968 disturbances, 73, 74-6, 77, 78, 87-8; 1973, 201-2, 207-8, 210-11, 235, 269, 275; Bibliothèque Royale (Nationale), 222, 267; Doyenne, 228-9; Ecole Normale Supérieure, 207; Lycée Charlemagne, 219, 221; Paris Opera, 246-7; Théâtre Français, 223

  past, the: distance, 27; speaking of one’s own, 207-8; traces remaining, 67-8; see also biography

  Peacock, Thomas Love, Nightmare Abbey, 181

  Pellegrini, Maria, 148; son, 149, 150

  photographs, 149-50; attitude of subjectsto, 210; and biography, 178-9, 202-3, 204-5; early portraits, 202-3, 204-7

  Pisa: Palazzo Lanfranchi, 178; PBS in, 11, 140, 159, 160, 171, 177-80; TreDonzelle Inn, 144

  Plymouth Brethren, 58, 59

  Presse, La: Gautier writes for, 212, 214, 231, 233; Nerval writes for, 212, 229, 231, 251; “open letter”from Gautier to Nerval in, 246, 247

  Proust, Marcel, 212, 225, 253

  pseudonyms, 241

  Rearden, Timothy, 41, 43

  reason, and imagination, 86, 87-8, 127, 131-2

  Renduel (publisher), 222

  revolution: classic, 88; and imagination, 86, 87-8, 127-8; and Romantics, 76-7, 127-8; PBS, 151-2; and Virtue, 104; see alsoFrench Revolution