Gaspard de la nuit

Aloysius Bertrand's ground-breaking collection of prose ballads was published in 1842, a year after his death at 34. Gaspard de la Nuit combines the haunting gothic imagery of Hoffman with the colorful romantic verve of Victor Hugo. In it, you will meet Scarbo the vampire dwarf, Ondine, the faerie princess of the waters, and an unforgettable assortment of lepers, alchemists, beggars, swordsmen and ghosts. Gaspard de la Nuit inspired Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, the Surrealist Movement and composer Maurice Ravel, who wrote a suite of virtuoso piano pieces patterned after it.