A new Orpheus in the Orient Nerval, or the questioning of a European founding myth

In the eyes of the Nerval’s traveler, the pyramids shrink as we approach. The article proposes to follow the consequences of this inaugural paradox, in order to highlight the particularity of Nerval in relation to his predecessor Chateaubriand and his contemporary Henri Delaage. It elucidates the metaphorical meaning of the pyramids, whose underground reveals an unexpected communication between East and West.