The aurelian is Paul Pilgram, his life is empty and he imagines to be in butterfly places such as Digne.
The aurelian is Paul Pilgram, an entomologist and butterfly dealer who never left his native Berlin. His life is empty and dreary, his business dismal, and his marriage perfunctory. He imagines to be in butterfly places such as Digne in France, Ragusa in Dalmatia, Sarepta in Russia, or Abisko in Lapland, or even catching them in the tropics, or following the lead of Father Dejean (a French missionary who worked in East Tibet). 
