Gérard de NERVAL – Autograph letter signed “G. Labrunie”. 1830.

Gérard de NERVAL (1808.1855)

Autograph letter signed "G. Labrunie"

Two octavo pages. Collector's stamp at the top.

[Paris]. February 5, 1830.

A very fine letter from the young Nerval, aged 22, thanking his interlocutor, with great politeness, for his visit to his maternal grandfather.

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"Sir, I am very touched by the trouble you took to visit me at my grandfather's house, and I thank you for the kind letter you wrote. As for the other letter you mentioned, I did not receive it, and I was quite surprised when I learned at my grandfather's that you had written me one a few months ago, according to what you had told them. I went to the office where you had addressed it, unaware that I no longer visited, and I became convinced there that these gentlemen, through negligence for which I am very ungrateful, had misplaced it, having kept it for me for a long time because they expected me to come and see them, and I remained several months without going. I regret this all the more because it would probably have given me your address and thus afforded me the pleasure of writing to you." I will now have the pleasure of seeing you, which is all the better, and if I don't mind disturbing you too much, I will come to visit you next Monday or Tuesday at 8:30; it's a bit early, but I believe that's the time when one is most likely to find you. Yours sincerely, G. Labrunie .

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Just after obtaining his baccalaureate on August 10, 1829, Gérard seems to have opted for vague legal studies combined with an internship at a notary's office, mentioned in this letter: "I went to the office to which you had sent it…". The lure of literature proved stronger than this legal path, which he very quickly abandoned.