Gérard de Nerval is not a simple subject. His father envisioned him as a doctor, but literature won his heart. Despite early success at the age of nineteen with his translation of Goethe’s Faust, his career never truly took off. He mingled with the literary elite of his time, but witnessing his hallucinations and stays in sanatoriums, his colleagues eventually distanced themselves. It was a descent into hell; at times, the man born Labrunie teetered on the brink of destitution and lived in squalid conditions. The fellow loved women, was frequently madly in love, but reciprocation was rare. Finally, he suffered from priapism and had a propensity for autoeroticism, ideally by suffocating himself with his tie.