Born: April 29, 1780

Died: January 27, 1844

Nationality: French

Movements: Romantic, Gothic

Genres: Novels, short stories, travelogue, literary criticism

Frank Ginn writes in a foreword to the famous story of The Bibliomaniac by Charles Nodier (born #OnThisDay in 1780), “To the French Nodier was what Poe is to the English, the most successful writer of the short story, the tale to be read in one sitting.” (https://t.co/jtDzgK4sxU)

His many works (only a handful of which have been translated) included fantasy stories, Romantic novels, dream fugues, and books on bibliophilia, legal literature, the Seine River, and a book length study of Gothic and Weird fantasy literature. The most famous authors of the age attended Nodier’s salons, where he would deliver entertaining stories or have one of the poets in attendance—Lamartine, Alfred de Vigny, or Victor Hugo among them—read some of their latest verse.

Nodier was especially qualified to write about bibliophiles, as he was an obsessive one, and over time amassed an impressive library among the treasures of which was a collection of beautifully bound Elzivirs (https://tinyurl.com/yb36aodw) which he fanatically arranged and rearranged on his shelves. On his deathbed, his friends and family had him moved into the library so he could pass away in view of his gorgeous books.

Contemporary Notices

–Tales of Travel: Traits of Men and Cities (1834): “M. Charles Nodier, a writer little known in England but familiar to French readers from a wildness of genius, a glowing style, and facility of composition which hurry him on to fritter away his powers

Public Domain English Translations

Trilby: The Fairy of Argyle. Translation and introduction by Nathan Haskell Dole
(Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1895) (https://tinyurl.com/ybahs7qx)

The Bibliomaniac. Translated by Mabel Osgood Wright. With forty-five illustrations from designs by Maurice Leloir, engraved on wood by F. Noel, and a preface by R. Vallery-Radot. (New York: J.O. Wright & Company, 1894) (https://tinyurl.com/ycmw3fmp)

Promenade from Dieppe to the Mountains of Scotland. Unlisted translator. (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and London: T. Cadell, 1922.) (https://tinyurl.com/ycj6eblg)

Other Illustrated Editions

See here.