Les Filles du feu by Gerard de Nerval
"Les Filles du feu" is a collection of short stories and poems that explore the author's fascination with the feminine ideal and his own experiences with love, loss, and madness. The book's central theme is the author's quest for the ideal woman, represented in various forms in different stories. The most famous story in the collection, "Sylvie," is a semi-autobiographical account of the author's romantic relationships with three women, exploring themes of time, memory, and idealized love. The book also includes a series of sonnets dedicated to the author's beloved, as well as a prose poem that recounts his experiences with madness and his visions of a mystical world.