"In 1844 the French painter and poet Gerard de Nerval travelled to the Levant, to Cairo, Beirut and Constantinople, the 'font of drug-taking', in search of hashish, new and wondrous experiences, the occult, encounters with the culture of the Middle East and, especially, the pursuit of the Eternal Female." "Journey to the Orient is the result of these adventures. Whether he is describing the return of the pilgrims from Mecca or the niceties of buying a Javanese slave-girl, Nerval has an eye for the real which is at once fantastic and humorous." "Impressionistic and lively, immediate and nervous, the style has not dated, and with his wild fluctuations of mood, the swashbuckling narrator reminds the reader of Henry Miller. Journey to the Orient is one of the most important literary rediscoveries of the past half-century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved