Les Illuminés, ou Les Précurseurs du Socialisme[a] is a collection of narratives or essays by the French poet and author Gérard de Nerval published in 1852.
In 2022, a complete translation by Peter Valente was published by Wakefield Press under the title The Illuminated, or The Precursors of Socialism: Tales and Portraits.
[1] The book consists of six narratives relating the adventures and mishaps of historical figures whose lives reflected different aspects of Nerval’s own experiences.
It is a male counterpart to his Les Filles du feu.
The concerns of socialism in the eighteenth century and the French Revolution underline most of the narratives.