1887 Scarce 1stED Book - Nerval's prose masterpiece - Sylvie: Recollections of Valois Illustrated.

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Author : de Nerval, Gerard; Halevy, Ludovic (pref.); Rudaux, Ed. (illustrator).
Title : Sylvie: Recollections of Valois.
Publisher : New York, George Routledge & Sons, 1887. First English edition.
Language : Text in English.
Size : 7 " X 5.5 ". 
Pages : 136 pages.
Binding : Attractive and very good full morocco leather binding (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed and worn - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. 
Content : Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare foxing and staining).
Illustrations : With 42 beautiful etchings by Edward Rudaux.

The book : Scarce edition of Sylvie (1853) -- a novella by French Romanticist Gérard de Nerval. It was first published in the periodical La Revue des Deux Mondes in 1853, and as a book in Les Filles du feu in 1854, just a few months before Nerval killed himself in January 1855. Sylvie is often considered to be Nerval's prose masterpiece, and has been a favorite of Marcel Proust, André Breton, Joseph Cornell and Umberto Eco. Harold Bloom included it in The Western Canon (1994).

The author: Gérard de Nerval ( 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the nom-de-plume of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu (The Daughters of Fire), which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". He played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.