Umberto Eco was deeply moved by Gérard de Nerval's romantic love story "Sylvie," published in 1853, when he was just 20 years old. For 45 years, he repeatedly read this barely forty-page narrative to explain to himself and others how it could consistently exert a magical effect on him. Prior to this, Marcel Proust had already noted the unique character of this text. He described it as an image of unreal color with an atmosphere that lies between the words like the fog of a morning in Chantilly, as a dream of a dream in which one continually loses orientation. This edition provides readers with everything they need to experience this captivating read for themselves: the French text and a new German translation, along with careful biographical and historical explanations.