Abstract: Advances in our knowledge about the life and publications of Gérard de Nerval have fostered the creation of studies that emphasize their political, social, and literary context—often at the expense of the imaginary. This study aims to restore the imaginary to its rightful role, by showing what credit it deserves, including its role in the practice of a genre that is as referential as the travel narrative and in a text like Les Nuits d’octobre, where realism is only invoked for the sake of deconstructing it.
