Les Chimeres Author:Gerard De Nerval Poetry. Gerard de Nerval is one of the most important writers of nineteenth century France, both in prose and verse. A precursor of the symbolists and the surrealists, Nerval has fascinated many major literary figures, including Proust and Breton, Elliot and Apollinaire, Michaux and Leiris. The great sonnet cycle, LES CHIMERES, in its marvelous ... more »combination of spell, quest, and dream, continues to fascinate writers, readers, and that special category of writerly readers, translators. Menard's translator is the gifted young poet William Stone, who explains his work in a strongly worded essay: like a submerged crocodile, with one amber eye half open the foreign line sits, waiting for the anxious translator to make a move. The book contains three other texts: a foreword by the poet Anne Beresford, a general introduction to Nerval by Michael Hamburger, and an afterword and notes on LES CHIMERES by Professor Norma Rinsler, the doyenne of English NERVALIENS.« less