Nodier, born in Besançon in 1780, was a bibliophile to the point of selling his books in order to buy others from the same bookseller. Appointed to the Arsenal library, he opened there between 1824 and 1830 the first Romantic salon, where Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine and Dumas came on Sundays. His tales acclimatised in France the fantastic that came from Germany, and made dreams a literary material.
The story
Charles Nodier was born in Besançon on 29 April 1780. A book collector past all reason — he would sell his books and buy others from the same dealer — he published a reasoned dictionary of onomatopoeias in 1808 and translated Shakespeare.
Appointed librarian of the Arsenal, he held there, from 1824 to 1830, the first Romantic circle. Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine and Dumas came on Sundays: a good part of French Romanticism was settled in that drawing room.
His tales — “Trilby”, “La Fée aux miettes”, “Smarra” — brought German fantasy into France, and brought the dream in with it as literary material. Nerval remembered them, and the Surrealists claimed him for an ancestor.
A friend of Dumas and Hugo, and a member of the Académie française, he died in Paris on 27 January 1844 and lies in Division 49 — a few steps from Eugène Delacroix, whose avenue runs across it.
Twenty-seven years after his death, the fighting of May 1871 ran between the graves: his monument carries the marks of the bullets traded between Communards and Versaillais. The stone of a man of dreams keeps the record of Bloody Week.
The grave
A bust neither signed nor dated, which the inventories take to be a copy of the one by David d'Angers. The inscription lines up the offices: “Charles Nodier, member of the Académie française and of the Légion d'honneur, librarian of the Arsenal” — yet this Légion d'honneur is not confirmed by the Base Léonore, like the one engraved on Enesco's grave in Division 68. The monument also carries the marks of the bullets exchanged in 1871 between Communards and Versailles troops: the fighting took place among these graves, and the stone of a writer of dreams carries its trace.
On site, do not miss
Look on the stone for the impacts of the fighting of May 1871 — and the list of titles: Académie française, Arsenal, Légion d'honneur.
Visitors' questions
Where is Charles Nodier's grave?
In Division 49, Chemin Casimir-Delavigne, first row — the division of Hélène Andrianoff's recumbent effigy and Antoine-Louis Barye's grave, crossed by Avenue Eugène-Delacroix, in the central part of the cemetery.
Hélène AndrianoffWhat was the Arsenal circle?
The first French Romantic salon, which he held at the Arsenal library from 1824 to 1830. Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine and Dumas came on Sundays: a part of French Romanticism was decided there.
Roger de BeauvoirDoes his grave bear traces of the Commune?
Yes: the fighting of May 1871 took place among the graves of Père-Lachaise, and his monument carries the marks of bullets exchanged between Communards and Versailles troops. Twenty-seven years after his death, the stone of a man of dreams kept the trace of the Bloody Week.
The Communards' WallWhat did he write?
Fantastic tales — “Trilby”, “La Fée aux miettes”, “Smarra” — which introduced the dream into France as literary material, a “Dictionnaire raisonné des onomatopées” in 1808, and translations of Shakespeare.
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