Gerard de Nerval Silvia
Gerard de Nerval Silvia
Silvia was written in the last period of Gérard de Nerval’s life and was among the adored books of Proust, Gracq, and Eco. The novel tells the story of the character’s love for three women (Silvia, Adriana, and Aurelia) whom he wants all three without being able to choose, and in the end, he loses all three. History
starts when a newspaper paragraph immerses it in the memories of the youth
the character and at the same time the narrator of the story. Perspective seems to shift back and forth between the past and the present, so the reader can never be clear whether the character’s voice narrates events of the past that belong to his memory, or of the present that is happening to him. Silvia
is regarded as a hymn to unattainable love and described by a sober and lyrical style.
Reading Silvia left me confused. I later learned that the same thing had happened to Proust “-UMBERTO ECO
