Books like Aurélia

I suspect that most of us have some kind of reality escape hatch that removes us from the inevitable difficulties both large and small of everyday existence. Whether it's religion, drugs/alcohol, reading too many books (!!!), there's another world outside the one we experience with our five senses that most of us look to in order to survive this one. The majority of us can delineate between the "real" world and the "other" world we imagine but there are those for whom the line between these worlds becomes less and less defined. Nerval is one of those people whose "other" world became his "real" world. And while it's clear it ultimately gave him much pain (he ended up taking his own life), it leaves us with this beautifully ethereal book that takes us into his self-created alternate universe.Written while institutionalized or shortly thereafter (I'm not clear on this), we get a look into a strange amalgam of other worlds that his mind takes him to. Some are beautiful and reassuring where he is reconnected with departed loved ones and taken to beautiful landscapes. Other times, he goes to places dark and terrifying and it's clear he's having doubts about the existence of a Christian heaven. On a spiritual quest, he looks to not only the Christian God but Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods, as well as simply looking to the stars for some sign, any sign that there is something more. He'll take it wherever he can conjure it up.Escaping to these other worlds becomes a kind of addiction for him and he loses all interest in the "real" world. The book begins with a seemingly realistic narrative about lost love and slowly bleeds into his imaginary world where it's difficult to tell if he is relating true events or imaginary dreams. Eventually it becomes irrelevant because you just feel privileged to have access to this mysterious man's mind.Written in a dream-state, stream-of-consciousness style in the 1850's considerably ahead of his time, it's obvious why he was so influential to the surrealists and other writers of the early 20th century such as Proust."My imagination gave me infinite delight. In recovering what men call reason, do I have to regret the loss of these joys?..." Indeed! Who needs reason when you can read this book!