La Pandora is a short novella by the French poet and writer
Gerard de Nerval
Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...
. In the style of
Sylvie, it recounts Nerval's stay in Vienna in 1839-1840 and his infatuation with a theatre actress there. It was a follow-up to the text of ''Les Amours de Vienne'', previously published in Revue de Paris in 1841 and incorporated in Nerval's book ''
Voyage en Orient'' in 1852. ''Pandora'' was originally titled ''Suite des Amours de Vienne - La Pandora''.
Begun in 1853, Nerval intended ''Pandora'' for inclusion in
Les Filles du Feu, but it was not finished in time for the volume. The first part was published by
Alexandre Dumas in the journal ''Le Mousquetaire'' in October 1854, but its publication was interrupted by Nerval’s suicide. Several attempts were made in the 20th century to produce a finished draft, the first published by Aristide Marie in 1921.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandora
Works by Gérard de Nerval
Short stories published posthumously