Prosper Mérimée
born Sept. 28, 1803, Paris
died Sept. 23, 1870, Cannes, Fr.
French dramatist, historian,
archaeologist, and master of the short
story whose works—Romantic in theme but
Classical and controlled in style—were a
renewal of Classicism in a Romantic age.
Of a cultured, middle-class Norman
background, Mérimée first studied law
but was more devoted to learning the
Greek, Spanish, English, and Russian
languages and their literatures. At 19
he wrote his first play, Cromwell
(1822); his close friend the novelist
Stendhal encouraged him in this literary
direction.
A collection of his plays, Le Théâtre
de Clara Gazul, appeared in 1825.
Indulging his taste for mystification,
he presented them as translations by a
certain Joseph L’Estrange of the work of
a Spanish actress. His next hoax was La
Guzla (1827), by “Hyacinthe Maglanowich,”
ballads about murder, revenge, and
vampires, supposedly translated from the
Illyrian. Both works deceived even
scholars of the day.
Mérimée’s passions were mysticism,
history, and the unusual. Inspired by
the vogue for historical fiction
established by Sir Walter Scott, he
wrote La Jacquerie (1828), 36 dramatic
scenes about a peasant insurrection in
feudal times, and the novel La Chronique
du temps de Charles IX (1829),
concerning French court life during war
and peace.
Mérimée’s short stories best
illustrate his imagination and sombre
temperament; many are mysteries, of
foreign inspiration and local colour.
Spain and Russia were his principal
literary sources; he was the first
interpreter of Russian literature in
France. Pushkin was his master,
especially for his themes of violence
and cruelty and the human psychology
behind them. In one of his best known
stories, “Mateo Falcone” (1833), a
father kills a son for betraying the
family honour. The collection Mosaïque
(1833) was followed by his most famous
novellas: Colomba (1840), the story of a
young Corsican girl who forces her
brother to commit murder for the sake of
a vendetta, and Carmen (1845), in which
an unfaithful gypsy girl is killed by a
soldier who loves her. The latter story
is internationally known through the
opera by Bizet. Lokis (1869) and La
Chambre bleue (1872) show Mérimée’s
fascination with the supernatural.
In 1831 he met a young girl, Jenny
Dacquin, with whom he engaged in a
lifelong correspondence, which was
published after his death as Lettres à
une inconnue (1874; “Letters to an
Unknown Girl”). Mérimée, who served in
the French Admiralty as general
inspector of historical monuments, wrote
his Notes de voyages . . . (1835–40),
covering his travels through Greece,
Spain, Turkey, and France. He was also
an excellent historian and archaeologist
and wrote several works in these fields,
as well as literary criticism.
Mérimée was a longtime friend of the
Countess of Montijo, whom he met in
Spain in 1830. Later, in 1853, when her
daughter became the empress Eugénie of
France, Mérimée was admitted to the
royal circle and made a senator. He was
not fond of Napoleon III, however, and
never became a wholehearted courtier.
His letters to Sir Anthony Panizzi,
principal librarian of the British
Museum and his closest friend in
Mérimée’s old age, have been described
as a “history of the Second Empire.”
They were published posthumously as
Lettres à M. Panizzi: 1850–70 (1881).
Mérimée has been acclaimed for the
precision and restraint of his writing
style. Though his best stories are
imbued with mystery and local colour,
exoticism never seems to take precedence
over the psychological delineation of
character. His use of realistic detail
and precise delineation to establish the
presence of the supernatural and
fantastic is also notable. Mérimée’s
works frequently feature exceptional
characters whose forceful and passionate
natures have something inhuman about
them and which lift them above the
common run of humanity.
