Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a
French writer in the movement of
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, and one of the pioneers of the
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and historian, and an important figure in the history of architectural preservation. He is best known for his novella ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'', which became the basis of
Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become o ...
's opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
''. He learned Russian, a language for which he had great affection, and translated the work of several important Russian writers, including
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and
Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
, into French. From 1830 until 1860 he was the inspector of French historical monuments, and was responsible for the protection of many historic sites, including the medieval citadel of
Carcassonne
Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department.
Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the ...
and the restoration of the façade of the cathedral of
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
. Along with the writer
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
, he discovered the series of tapestries called ''
The Lady and the Unicorn
''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Par ...
'', and arranged for their preservation. He was instrumental in the creation of
Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, where the tapestries now are displayed. The official database of French monuments, the
Base Mérimée
The ''Base Mérimée'' is the database of French monumental and architectural heritage, created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995. The database is periodically updated, and contains ...
, bears his name.
Education and literary debut
Prosper Mérimée was born in Paris, the
First French Republic
In the history of France, the First Republic (french: Première République), sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic (french: République française), was founded on 21 September 1792 ...
, on 28 September 1803, early in the
Napoleonic era
The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative ...
. His father
Léonor
''Léonor'' (also known as ''Mistress of the Devil'') is a 1975 French-Italian-Spanish horror film written and directed by Juan Luis Buñuel (the son of Luis Buñuel) and starring Michel Piccoli, Liv Ullmann and Ornella Muti.
Plot
Cast
...
was a painter who became professor of design at the École polytechnique, and was engaged in a study of the chemistry of oil paints. In 1807 his father was named Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. His mother Anne was twenty-nine when he was born, and was also a painter. His father's sister, Augustine, was the mother of the physicist
Augustin-Jean Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Isaac Newton, Newton's co ...
and the orientalist
Fulgence Fresnel
Fulgence Fresnel ( or ; ; (15 April 1795 – 30 November 1855) was a French Orientalist. He was brother to the noted physicist Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827). Fresnel was an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams t ...
. At the age of seven, Prosper was enrolled in the Lycée Napoléon, which after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 became the
Lycée Henri-IV
The Lycée Henri-IV is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges (''lycées'') in France.
The school educates more than ...
. His classmates and friends were the children of the elite of Restoration France, including Adrien Jussieu, son of famous botanist
Antoine Laurent de Jussieu
Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...
, and Jean-Jacques Ampère, son of
André-Marie Ampère, famous for his research in physics and electrodynamics. Both his parents spoke English well, traveled frequently to England and entertained many British guests. By the age of fifteen he was fluent in English. He had a talent for foreign languages, and besides English mastered classical
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Latin. Later in life he became fluent in Spanish, and could passably speak
Serbian and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. In school he also had a strong interest in history, and was fascinated by magic and the supernatural, which later became important elements in many of his stories.
He finished the Lycée with high marks in classical languages and in 1820 he began to study law, planning for a position in the royal administration. In 1822 he passed the legal examinations and received his license to practice law. However, his real passion was for French and foreign literature: In 1820 he translated the works of
Ossian, the presumed ancient Gaelic poet, into French.
[Pierl, Caecelia, Notes to ''Mateo Falcone'', page 17] At the beginning of the 1820s he frequented the salon of
Juliette Récamier
Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier (; 3 December 1777 – 11 May 1849), known as Juliette (), was a French socialite whose salon drew people from the leading literary and political circles of early 19th-century Paris. As an icon of ...
, a venerable figure in the literary and political life of Paris, where he met
Chateaubriand and other prominent writers. In 1822, at the salons, he met
Henri Beyle, twenty years older, who became one of his closest friends, and later became famous as a novelist under the pen name of Stendhal. He then began to attend the salon of Étienne Delécluze, a painter and art critic, whose members were interested in the new school of
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in art and literature.
Between the spring of 1823 and the summer of 1824, he wrote his first literary works: a political and historical play called ''Cromwell''; a satirical piece called ''Les Espagnols en Dannark'' (''The Spanish in Denmark''); and a set of six short theater pieces called the ''Théâtre de Clara Gazul'', a witty commentary about the theater, politics and life which purported to be written by a Spanish actress, but which actually targeted current French politics and society. In March 1825 he read his new works at the salon of Delécluze. The first two works were quickly forgotten, but the scenes of Clara Gazul had considerable success with his literary friends. They were printed in the press under the name of their imaginary author, and were his first published work.
Balzac described ''Clara Gazul'' as "a decisive step in the modern literary revolution", and its fame soon reached beyond France; the German Romanticist
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
wrote an article praising it. Mérimée was not so gracious toward Goethe; he called Goethe's own work "a combination of genius and German naïveté".
King
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
died in 1824, and the regime of the new King,
Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...
, was much more authoritarian and reactionary. Mérimée and his friends became part of the liberal opposition to the regime. On 30 November 1825, he took part in a student demonstration led by the young but already famous
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
. He was invited to Hugo's home, where he charmed the poet by making macaroni for him. Mérimée was drawn into the new romantic movement, led by the painter
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
and the writers Hugo,
Alfred de Musset and
Eugène Sue
Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated ''The Mysteries of Paris'', which ...
. In 1830 he attended the riotous premiere of Hugo's play ''
Hernani'', bringing with him a group of friends, including Stendhal and the Russian writer
Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
, to support Hugo. Hugo made an anagram from his name, transforming ''Prosper Mérimée'' into ''Premiere Prose''.
![Hyacinthe Maglanovich, frontispice de La Guzla Merime](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Hyacinthe_Maglanovich%2C_frontispice_de_La_Guzla_Merime.jpg)
In July 1827 he published in a literary journal a new work, ''
La Guzla
''La Guzla, ou Choix de poesies illyriques, recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, La Croatie et l'Hertzegowine'' (''The Guzla, or a Selection of Illyric Poems Collected in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovina'') was a 1827 literary h ...
''. Ostensibly it was a collection of poems from the ancient Adriatic province of
Illyria
In classical antiquity, Illyria (; grc, Ἰλλυρία, ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; la, Illyria, ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyr ...
(modern Croatia), and it was published under another assumed name, Hyacinthe Maglanovich. The poems were highly romantic, filled with phantoms and werewolves. Mérimée drew upon many historic sources for his picturesque and gothic portrait of the Balkans, including a tale about
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
s taken from the writings of the 18th-century French monk
Dom Calmet
Antoine Augustin Calmet, O.S.B. (26 February 167225 October 1757), a French people, French Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monk, was born at Ménil-la-Horgne, then in the Duchy of Bar, part of the Holy Roman Empire (now the French department ...
. These poems, published in literary journals, were widely praised both in France and abroad. The Russian poet
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
had translated some of the poems in the book into Russian before he was notified by Mérimée, through his Russian friend Sobolevsky, that the poems, except for one Mérimée translated from a real Serbian poet, were not authentic. A book of the poems was not a commercial success, selling only a dozen copies, but the journals and press made Mérimée an important literary figure. From then on Mérimée's stories and articles were regularly published by the two leading literary magazines of Paris, the ''
Revue des deux Mondes
The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829.
According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...
'' and the ''
Revue de Paris
''Revue de Paris'' was a French literary magazine founded in 1829 by Louis-Désiré Véron. After two years Veron left the magazine to head the Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded ...
''.
After ''La Guzla'' he wrote three traditional novels: ''La Jacquerie'' (June 1828) was an historical novel about a peasant revolt in the Middle Ages, filled with flamboyant costumes, picturesque details and colorful settings. The critic Henri Patin reported that novel was "lacking in drama, but many of the scenes were excellent". The second, ''La Famille Carvajal'' (1828), was a parody of the work of
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
, set in 17th-century
New Granada, filled with murders and crimes of passion. Many of the critics entirely missed that the novel was a parody: the ''Revue de Paris'' denounced the story for its "brutal and shameful passions". The third was ''La Chronique du Temps de Charles IX'' (1829), another historical novel, set during the reign of
Charles IX of France
Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the ...
in the 16th century. It was written three years before Victor Hugo published his historical novel ''
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
''. Mérimée's story featured a combination of irony and extreme realism, including a detailed and bloody recreation of the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. It was published in March 1829, without any great success, and its author was by then tired of the genre. "I wrote a wicked novel that bores me", he wrote to his friend Albert Stapfer.
Novellas, travels in Spain and government posts (1829–1834)
In 1829, Mérimée found a new literary genre that perfectly suited his talents; the ''nouvelle'' or
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
, essentially a long short story or short novel. Between 1829 and 1834, he wrote thirteen stories, following three basic principles; a brief story told in prose; a sparse and economical style of writing, with no unneeded lyricism; and a unity of action, all leading to the ending, which was often abrupt and brutal. In a short period Mérimée wrote two of his most famous novellas, ''
Mateo Falcone
''Mateo Falcone'' is an 1829 short story by Prosper Mérimée. It first appeared in the May issue of ''Revue de Paris''. Its tightly focused narrative was well received and it has been called the original French short story.
Plot
The narrator rec ...
'', about a tragic vendetta in Corsica, and ''
Tamango'', a drama on a slave-trading ship, which were published in the ''Revue de Paris'', and had considerable success.
He also began a series of long trips which provided material for much of his future writing. In June 1830 he traveled to Spain, which he explored at a leisurely pace, spending many hours in the
Prado Museum
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
in Madrid, attending bullfights, and studying Moorish architecture in
Córdoba and
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
. He was in Spain in July 1830, when the government of
Charles X of France
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...
was overthrown and replaced by the rule of
Louis Philippe I
Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France.
As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...
. Fascinated by Spain, he decided not to return to France immediately, but to continue his journey. In October 1830 he met
Cipriano Portocarrero, a liberal Spanish aristocrat and the future Count of Montijo, who shared many of his literary and historical interests and political views. He visited the Count and met his wife, the
Countess of Montijo, and their young daughter, Eugénie, then four years old, who in 1853 was to become the
Empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
, the wife of Emperor Napoleon III.
He returned to Paris in January 1831, and began publishing vivid accounts of his trip to Spain in the ''Revue de Paris'' under the title ''Lettres d'Espagne''. These included the first mention of ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'', a story told to him by the Countess of Montijo. He also sought a position in the new administration of King Louis Philippe. Many of his friends had already found jobs in the new government; Stendhal was named French consul to
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
, and the writers
Chateaubriand and
Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
both received honorary government posts. Mérimée, twenty-seven years old, briefly served as the chief of the secretariat of the Ministry of the Navy, and then, as the new government was organized, was moved from post to post; for a short time he was director of fine arts, then was moved to the Interior Ministry, where, he wrote ironically, "I conducted, with great glory, the telegraph lines, the administration of the corps of firemen, the municipal guards, etc." He turned out to be an efficient administrator, and was put in charge of organizing the response to the epidemic of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
which struck Paris between 29 March and 1 October 1832, killing eighteen thousand Parisians. At the peak of the epidemic, he spent much of his time at the Hotel-Dieu, the main hospital of Paris. In November 1832 he was moved again to the State Council, where he became Chief of Accounts. He was not there for long; in December 1832 Prime Minister
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
sent him to London on an extended diplomatic mission to report on the British elections. He became a member of the most prominent London club, the
Athenaeum
Athenaeum may refer to:
Books and periodicals
* ''Athenaeum'' (German magazine), a journal of German Romanticism, established 1798
* ''Athenaeum'' (British magazine), a weekly London literary magazine 1828–1921
* ''The Athenaeum'' (Acadia U ...
, and consulted with the venerable French ambassador to England,
Prince Talleyrand.
Inspector-General of Historical Monuments (1833–1852)
On 27 May 1833, Prime Minister Thiers named Mérimée inspector-general of
historical monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
s, with a salary of eight thousand francs a year, and all travel expenses paid. Mérimée wrote that the job perfectly suited "his taste, his laziness, and his ideas of travel".
A large part of the architectural heritage of France, particularly the churches and monasteries, had been damaged or destroyed during the Revolution. Of the 300 churches in Paris in the 16th century, only 97 still were standing in 1800. The
Basilica of St Denis had been stripped of its stained glass and monumental tombs, while the statues on the façade of the cathedral of
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
and the spire had been taken down. Throughout the country, churches and monasteries had been demolished or turned into barns, cafes, schools, or prisons. The first effort to catalog the remaining monuments was made in 1816 by Alexandre de Laborde, who wrote the first list of "Monuments of France". In 1832 Victor Hugo wrote an article for the ''Revue des deux Mondes'' which declared war against the "massacre of ancient stones" and the "demolishers" of France's past. King Louis Philippe declared that restoration of churches and other monuments would be a priority of his regime. In October 1830, the position of Inspector of Historical Monuments had been created by the Interior Minister,
François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848.
A conservative liberal who opposed the a ...
, a professor of history at the Sorbonne. Mérimée became its second Inspector, and by far the most energetic and long-lasting. He held the position for twenty-seven years.
![Burg von Carcassonne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Burg_von_Carcassonne.jpg)
Mérimée had honed his bureaucratic skills in the Interior Ministry, and he understood the political and the financial challenges of the task. He approached his new duties methodically. He first organized a group of architects specialized and trained in restoration, and had the money that previously had been given to the Catholic Church for restoration transferred to his budget. On 31 July 1834, he set off on his first inspection tour of historic monuments, traveling for five months, describing and cataloging the monuments he saw. Between 1834 and 1852 he made nineteen inspection tours to different regions of France. The longest, to the Southeast and to Corsica, lasted five months, but most trips were shorter than a month. When he returned after each trip, he made a detailed report to the Ministry on what needed to be done. In addition, he wrote scholarly studies for journals of archaeology and history. His scholarly works included a survey of the religious architecture in France during the Middle Ages (1837) and of military monuments of the Gauls, Greeks and Romans (1839). Finally, he wrote a series of books for a popular audience about the monuments of each region, describing vividly a France that he declared was "more unknown than Greece or Egypt".
In 1840 he published the first official
List of Historic Monuments in France, with 934 entries. By 1848 the number had grown to 2,800. He organized a systematic review to prioritize restoration projects, and established a network of correspondents in each region who kept an eye on the projects, made new discoveries, and signaled any vandalism. Though he was a confirmed atheist, many of the buildings he protected and restored were churches, which he treated as works of art and shrines of national history. He often disputed with local church authorities, insisting that more recent architectural modifications be removed, and the buildings restored to their original appearance. He also confronted local governments who wanted to demolish or convert old structures. With the authority of the royal government behind him, he was able prevent the city of
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
from turning the medieval Palace of Estates into an office building, and he stopped the city of
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
from demolishing the medieval ramparts along the
Rhône River
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
to make way for railroad tracks.
![Paris 2012-aout-0006-2-Hotel-de-Cluny](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Paris_2012-aout-0006-2-Hotel-de-Cluny.jpg)
He was assisted in several of his projects by the architect
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. H ...
. Viollet-le-Duc was twenty-six, and had studied mathematics and chemistry but not architecture; he learned his profession from practical experience and travel. In 1840 he worked the first time for Mérimeé; in one month he designed a solution which prevented the collapse of the medieval
Vézelay Abbey
Vézelay Abbey (french: Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay) is a Benedictine and Cluniac monastery in Vézelay in the east-central French department of Yonne. It was constructed between 1120 and 1150. The Benedictine abbey church, now the B ...
. In 1842–43, Mérimée gave him a much more ambitious project, restoring the facades of the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
. He returned the statues which had been removed during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, and later restored the spire.
Mérimée warned his conservators to avoid the "false-ancient": he ordered them to carry out "the reproduction of that which manifestly existed. Reproduce with prudence the parts destroyed, where there exist certain traces. Don't give yourself to inventions... When the traces of the ancient state are lost, the wisest is to copy the analog motifs in a building of the same type in the same province". However, some of his restorers, notably Viollet-le-Duc, were later criticized for sometimes being guided by the spirit of the gothic or romanesque architectural style, if the original appearance was not known.
He participated personally in the restoration of many of the monuments. His tastes and talents were well suited to archaeology, combining an unusual linguistic talent, accurate scholarship, remarkable historical appreciation, and a sincere love for the arts of design and construction. He had some practical skills in design. A few pieces of his own art are held by the
Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, Maryland. some of which, with other similar pieces, have been republished in his works.
In 1840–41, Mérimée made an extended tour of Italy, Greece and Asia Minor, visiting and writing about archaeological sites and ancient civilizations. His archaeology earned him a seat in the Académie française des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and his stories and novellas won him a seat in the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
in 1844.
In 1842, he arranged for the French state to purchase a medieval building, the Hôtel d'Cluny, as well as the adjoining ruins of the Roman baths. He had them joined and supervised both the construction and the collection of medieval art to be displayed. The museum, now called the
Musée national du Moyen Âge, opened on 16 March 1844.
In 1841, during one of his inspection tours, he stayed at the Château of
Boussac, Creuse
Boussac (; oc, Boçac) is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France. The famous Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries (c. 1500) were discovered in 1841 in Boussac castle. In 1844 the novelist George Sand sa ...
in the
Limousin
Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...
district of central France, in the company of
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
, who lived nearby. Together they explored the castle, which had recently been taken over by the Sub-Prefecture. In an upstairs room they found the six tapestries of the series ''
The Lady and the Unicorn
''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Par ...
''. They had suffered from long neglect, and had been damaged by damp and mice, but Mérimée and Sand immediately recognized their value. Mérimée had the tapestries inscribed in the list of monuments and arranged for their conservation. In 1844 Sand wrote a novel about them and correctly dated them to the 15th century, using the ladies' costumes for reference.
In 1861 they were purchased by the French state and brought to Paris, where they were restored and put on display in the
Musée national du Moyen Âge, which Mérimée had helped create, where they can be seen today.
''La Vénus d'Ille'', ''Colomba'' and ''Carmen'' (1837–1845)
While he was researching historical monuments, Mérimée wrote three of his most famous novellas; ''
La Vénus d'Ille'' (1837), ''
Colomba
Colomba is a town, with a population of 28,655 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & towns in ...
'' (1840) and ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' (1845). ''The Venus d'Ille'' was a by-product of his 1834 monument inspection tour to
Roussillon
Roussillon ( , , ; ca, Rosselló ; oc, Rosselhon ) is a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the reg ...
, to the village of Casefabre and the Priory of Serrabina, near Ille-sur-Têt. The novella tells the story of a statue of Venus that comes to life and kills the son of its owner, whom it believes to be its husband. The story was inspired by a story of the Middle Ages recounted by the historian Freher. Using this story as an example, Mérimée described the art of writing fantasy literature; "Don't forget that when you recount something supernatural, one should describe as many details of concrete reality as possible. That is the great art of
Hoffmann
Hoffmann is a German language, German surname.
People A
*Albert Hoffmann (horticulturist), Albert Hoffmann (1846–1924), German horticulturist
*Alexander Hoffmann (politician), Alexander Hoffmann (born 1975), German politician
*Arthur Hoffmann ...
and his fantastic stories".
''
Colomba
Colomba is a town, with a population of 28,655 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & towns in ...
'' is a tragic story about a Corsican
vendetta
Vendetta may refer to:
* Feud or vendetta, a long-running argument or fight
Film
* ''Vendetta'' (1919 film), a film featuring Harry Liedtke
* ''Vendetta'' (1950 film), an American drama produced by Howard Hughes
* ''Vendetta'' (1986 film), a ...
. The central character, Colomba, convinces her brother that he must kill a man to avenge an old wrong done to their family. This story was the result of his long trip to that island researching historic monuments, and is filled with details about Corsican culture and history. When it was published in the ''Revue des deux Mondes'' it had an immense popular success. It is still widely studied in French schools as an example of
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
.
''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'', according to Mérimée, was based upon a story which the
Countess of Montijo had told him during his visit to Spain in 1830. It tells of a beautiful ''Bohémienne'' (
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
) who robs a soldier, who then falls in love with her. Jealous over her, he kills another man and becomes an outlaw, then he discovers she is already married, and in jealousy he kills her husband. When he learns she has fallen in love with a
picador
A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bullf ...
, he kills her, and then is arrested and sentenced to death. In the original story told to Mérimée by the Countess, Carmen was not a ''Bohémienne'', but since he was studying the Romani language and Romani culture in Spain and in the Balkans, he decided to give her that background. ''Carmen'' did not have the same popular success as ''Colomba''. It did not become really famous until 1875, after Mérimée's death, when it was made into opera by
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
. The opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' made major changes to Mérimée's story, including eliminating the role of Carmen's husband.
Mérimée was anxious to solidify his literary reputation. He first campaigned methodically for election to the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, the highest academic body, which he finally attained in November 1843. He next campaigned for a seat in the most famous literary body, the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
. He patiently lobbied the members each time a member died and a seat was vacant. He was finally elected on 14 March 1844, on the seventeenth round of voting.
The Second Republic and translation of Russian literature (1848–1852)
At the end of 1847 Mérimée completed a major work on Spanish history, the biography of
Don Pedro I, King of Castile. It was six hundred pages long and published in five parts in the ''Journal des Deux Mondes'' between December 1847 and February 1848.
In 1847 he read ''
Boris Godunov
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...
'' by
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
in French, and wanted to read all of Pushkin in the original language. He took as his Russian teacher Madame de Langrené, a Russian émigré who had once been the dame of honor of the Grand Duchess Marie, daughter of Tsar
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , group=pron ( – ) was List of Russian rulers, Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He was the third son of Paul I of Russia, Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I ...
. By 1848 he was able to translate Pushkin's ''
The Queen of Spades'' into French; it was published on 15 July 1849 in the ''Revue des deux Mondes''. He began to attend the literary salon of the Russian writers in Paris, the ''Cercle des Arts'' on rue Choiseul, to perfect his Russian. He translated two more Pushkin stories, ''The Bohemians'' and ''The Hussar'', as well as ''
Dead Souls
''Dead Souls'' (russian: «Мёртвые души», ''Mjórtvyje dúshi'') is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adv ...
'' and ''
The Inspector General'' by
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
. He also wrote several essays on Russian history and literature. In 1852, he published a scholarly article, ''An Episode of the History of Russia; the False Dimitri'', in the ''Revue des Deux Mondes''.
In February 1848, as a member of the National Guard, he was a spectator at the
French Revolution of 1848
The French Revolution of 1848 (french: Révolution française de 1848), also known as the February Revolution (), was a brief period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation ...
that toppled King Louis Philippe and founded the
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic (french: Deuxième République Française or ), officially the French Republic (), was the republican government of France that existed between 1848 and 1852. It was established in February 1848, with the February Revo ...
. On 8 March, he wrote to his friend Madame de Montijo: "Here we are in a republic, without enthusiasm, but determined to hold onto it because it is the sole chance of safety that we still have". The new government abolished the Bureau of Historic Monuments and merged its function into the Department of Fine Arts; however, Mérimée retained the position of Inspector of Historic Monuments, and his membership on the Commission of Historic Monuments. In December 1848,
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected the first president of Second Republic in December 1848, and Mérimée resumed his activity. In 1849 he helped organize a successful campaign to preserve the medieval
Citadel of Carcassonne. In 1850 he arranged for the
crypt of Saint-Laurent in
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
to be classified as an historical monument.
The year 1852 was difficult for Mérimée. On 30 April 1852, his mother, who lived with him and was very close to him, died. He also became entangled in a legal affair involving one of his friends, Count
Libri Carrucci Della Sommaja, a professor of mathematics from Pisa Count who settled in France in 1824 and became a professor at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
, a member of
College of France
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
, a holder of the Legion of Honor, and the Inspector General of Libraries of France. It was discovered that under his academic cover he was stealing valuable manuscripts from state libraries, including texts by
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
, and reselling them. When he was exposed, he fled to England, taking 30,000 works in sixteen trunks, and claimed that he was victim of a plot. Though all the evidence was against Count Libri, Mérimée took his side, and in April 1852 wrote a scathing attack on Libri's accusers in the ''Revue des deux Mondes''. He attacked the incompetence of the prosecutors and blamed the Catholic Church for inventing the case. On the same day that his mother died, he was summoned before the state prosecutors, and was sentenced to fifteen days in prison and fined one thousand francs. The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' was also fined two hundred francs. Mérimée offered his resignation from the government, which was refused. He served his sentence inside one of his listed historic monuments, the
Palais de la Cité
The Palais de la Cité (), located on the Île de la Cité in the Seine River in the centre of Paris, is a major historic building that was the residence of the Kings of France from the sixth century until the 14th century, and has been the center ...
prison, passing the time studying Russian irregular verbs.
Advisor to the Empress and Senator of the Empire (1852–1860)
![Empress Eugénie in Court Dress (Guillemet after Winterhalter, Musée d'Orsay)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Empress_Eug%C3%A9nie_in_Court_Dress_%28Guillemet_after_Winterhalter%2C_Mus%C3%A9e_d%27Orsay%29.jpg)
In December 1851, President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was prevented by the French Constitution from running for re-election. Instead, he organized a coup and became Emperor
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
. Mérimée accepted the coup philosophically, because he feared anarchy more than a monarchy, and because he saw no other practical option. While Mérimée accepted the coup, others, including Victor Hugo, did not. Hugo described his last meeting with Mérimée in Paris on 4 December 1851, just before Hugo went into exile: "'Ah', said M. Mérimée, 'I am looking for you'. I answered, 'I hope that you will not find me'. He extended his hand, and I turned my back. I have not seem him since. I consider that he is dead... M. Mérimée by nature is vile". The services of Mérimée were welcomed by the new Emperor; on 21 January 1852, soon after coup, he was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor. The new Emperor gave a priority to the preservation of historic monuments, particularly the restoration of the cathedral of Notre-Dame, and Mérimée kept his position and for a time continued his tours of inspection.
Mérimée, without seeking it, soon had another close connection with the Emperor. Eugénie Montijo, the daughter of his close friends the Count and Countess of Montijo, had been invited to an event at the Palace of Saint Cloud, where she met the new Emperor. In November 1852 she was invited to the
Palace of Fontainebleau
Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...
, where the Emperor proposed marriage to her. They were married fifteen days later at the Tuileries Palace, and she became the
Empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
. Honors followed immediately for Mérimée; he was made a Senator of the Empire, with a salary of 30,000 francs a year, and became the confidant and closest friend of the young Empress.
The mother of the Empress, the Countess of Montijo, returned to Spain, and Mérimée kept her informed of everything that the Empress did. He became involved in the court life, moving with the court from imperial residence to residence, to
Biarritz
Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...
, the
Château de Compiègne
The Château de Compiègne is a French château, a royal residence built for Louis XV and restored by Napoleon. Compiègne was one of three seats of royal government, the others being Versailles and Fontainebleau. It is located in Compiègne ...
, the
Château de Saint-Cloud
The Château de Saint-Cloud was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. On the site of the former palace is the state-owned Parc de Saint-Cloud.
The château was expand ...
and
Palais de Fontainebleau. It soon became clear the Empress was not the Emperor's only romantic interest; Napoleon III continued his affairs with old mistresses, leaving the Empress often alone. Mérimée became her chief friend and protector at Court. He was obliged to attend all the court events, including masked balls, though he hated balls and dancing. He told stories, acted in plays, took part in charades, and "made a fool of himself", as he wrote to his friend Jenny Dacquin in 1858. "Every day we eat too much, and I am half dead. Destiny did not make me to be a courtesan..." The only events he really enjoyed were the stays at the Château de Compiègne, where he organized lectures and discussions for the Emperor with leading French cultural figures, including
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...
and
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
. He met prominent visitors, including
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
, whom he described as "very much a gentleman" and "more spiritual than the usual German".
He gave very little attention to his role as Senator; in seventeen years, he spoke in the chamber only three times. Mérimée had intended to devote a large part of his time to writing a major scholarly biography of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
. However, when he informed the Emperor of this project, the Emperor expressed his own admiration for Caesar, and took over the project. Mérimée was obliged to give the Emperor all of his research, and to assist him in writing his book. ''The History of Julius Caesar'' was published on 10 March 1865, under the name of Napoleon III, and sold one hundred forty thousand copies on the first day.
Last works, the fall of the Empire and death (1861–1870)
He made his last long tour of monuments in 1853, though he remained the chief inspector of monuments until 1860. He continued to attend meetings of the Académie française and the Academy of Inscriptions. He wrote his last works, three novellas, in the genre of the fantastic: ''Djoûmane'' is a story about a soldier in North Africa who sees a sorcerer give a young woman to a snake, then realizes it was just a dream. It was not published until 1873, after his death; ''La Chambre bleu'', written as an amusement for the Empress, is the story of two lovers in a hotel room, who are terrified to find a stream of blood coming under the door of their room, then realize it is only port wine. ''Lokis'' is a horror story borrowed from a Danish folk tale, about a creature which is half-man and half bear. This story was also written to amuse the Empress, and he read it aloud to the court in July 1869, but the subject matter shocked the court, and the children were sent from the room. It was published in September 1869 in the ''Revue des deux Mondes''.
He continued to work for the preservation of monuments, attending meetings of the Commission and advising Boeswillwald, who had replaced him as Inspector of Monuments in 1860. On his urging the Commission acted to protect the medieval village of
Cordes-sur-Ciel
Cordes-sur-Ciel (; , ) is a commune in the Tarn department, region of Occitania, Southern France. The fortified town was built in 1222 by Raimond VII, the Count of Toulouse, who, though not a Cathar, tolerated what other Catholics considered he ...
, the Château de Villebon, and the romanesque churches of
Saint-Émilion
Saint-Émilion (; Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. In 2016, it had a population of 1,938.
In the heart of the country of ''Libournais'' (the area around Libourne), i ...
. He also continued to develop his passion for Russian literature, with the help of his friend
Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
and other Russian émigrés in Paris. He began writing a series of twelve articles on the life of
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
, based on a work in Russian by Nikolai Ustrialov, which appeared in the ''Journal des Savants'' between June 1864 and February 1868. He wrote to a friend that "Peter the Great was an abominable man surrounded by abominable villains. That is amusing enough for me". In 1869 he wrote to his friend Albert Stapfer that "Russian is the most beautiful language in Europe, not excepting Greek. It is richer than German, and has a marvelous clarity... It has a great poet and another almost as grand, both killed in duels when they were young, and a great novelist, my friend Turgenev".
In the 1860s he still traveled regularly. He went to England every year between 1860 and 1869, sometimes on official business, organizing the French participation in the 1862 Universal Exposition of Fine Arts in London, and in 1868 to transfer two antique Roman busts from the British Museum to the Louvre, and to see his friend
Anthony Panizzi
Sir Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (16 September 1797 – 8 April 1879), better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a naturalised British citizen of Italian birth, and an Italian patriot. He was a librarian, becoming the Principal Librarian (i.e. head ...
, the director of the British Museum. In 1859 he visited Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, where he attended his last bullfight.
By 1867, he was exhausted by the endless ceremonies and travels of the court, and thereafter he rarely participated in the imperial tours. He developed serious respiratory problems, and began to spend more and more time in the south of France, in
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...
. He became more and more conservative, opposing the more liberal reforms proposed by the Emperor in the 1860s. In May 1869 he declined an invitation to attend the opening of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
by the Empress.
The political crisis between Prussia and France that began in May 1870 required his return from Cannes to Paris, where he participated in the emergency meetings of the Senate. His health worsened, and he only rarely could leave his house. The Empress sent him fruit from the imperial gardens, and on 24 June he was visited by his old lover, Valentine Delessert, and by Viollet-le-Duc. His health continued to decline; he told a friend: "It's well over. I see myself arriving at death, and am preparing myself".
The war with Prussia began with patriotic enthusiasm, but quickly turned into a debacle. The French Army and the Emperor were surrounded at Sedan. One of the leaders of the group of deputies advocating the creation of a republic,
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
, visited Mérimée to ask him to use his influence with the Empress for a transition of power, but the meeting was brief; Mérimée would not consider asking the Empress and Emperor to abdicate. He told his friends that he dreaded the arrival of a republic, which he called "organized disorder".
On 2 September, news arrived in Paris that the army had capitulated and that Napoleon III had been taken prisoner. On 4 September, Mérimée got out of bed to attend the last meeting of the French Senate at the Luxembourg Palace. In the chamber he wrote a brief note to Panizzi: "All that the most gloomy and most dark imagination could invent has been surpassed by events. There is a general collapse, a French Army which surrenders, and an Emperor who allows himself to be taken prisoner. All falls at once. At this moment the legislature is being invaded and we cannot deliberate any longer. The National Guard which we just armed pretends to govern. ''Adieu'', my dear Panizzi, you know what I suffer". The Third Republic was proclaimed on the same day. Despite his illness, he hurried to the Tuileries Palace hoping to see the Empress, but the Palace was surrounded by armed soldiers and a crowd. The Empress fled for exile to London, and Mérimée did not see her again.
Mérimée returned to Cannes on 10 September. He died there on 23 September 1870, five days before his 67th birthday. Though he had been an outspoken atheist most of his life, at his request he was buried at the
Cimetière du Grand Jas
The Cimetière du Grand Jas (Grand Jas Cemetery) is located at 205 avenue de Grasse in Cannes on the French Riviera. The nine hectare terraced cemetery began operations in 1866 and is known for its landscaped architecture with rich floral decora ...
, the small cemetery of the Protestant church in Cannes. A few months later, in May 1871, during the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
, a mob burned his Paris home, along with his library, manuscripts, archaeological notes and collections because of his close association with the deposed
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
.
Personal life
He lived with his mother and father in Paris until the death of his father in September 1837. From 1838 he shared an apartment with his mother on the Left Bank at 10 rue des Beaux-Arts, in the same building as the offices of the ''Revue des deux Mondes''. They moved to a house at 18 rue Jacob in 1847 until his mother died in 1852.
Mérimée never married, but he needed female company. He had a series of romantic affairs, sometimes carried out by correspondence. In January 1828, during his youth, he was wounded in duel with the husband of his mistress at the time, Émilie Lacoste. In 1831 he began a relationship by correspondence with Jenny Dacquin. Their relationship continued for ten years, but they only met six or seven times, and then rarely alone. In 1873, after his death, she published all of his letters under the title ''Lettres à une inconnue'', or "Letters to an Unknown", in several volumes.
In his youth he had a mistress in Paris, Céline Cayot, an actress whom he supported financially and paid for an apartment. He then had a longer and more serious relationship with
Valentine Delessert. Born in 1806, she was the daughter of Count
Alexandre de Laborde
Comte Louis-Joseph-Alexandre de Laborde (17 September 1773 – 20 October 1842) was a French antiquary, liberal politician and writer, a member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiquesThe Académie des Sciences morales et politiques is ...
, ''aide-de-camp'' to
King Louis Philippe, and she was married to Gabriel Delessert, a prominent banker and real estate developer, who was twenty years older. Mérimée met Delessert in 1830, and she became his mistress in 1836, when he was visiting Chartres, where her husband had been named Prefect. he wrote to Stendhal that "She is my grand passion; I am deeply and seriously in love". Her husband, who had become prefect of police in Paris, apparently ignored the relationship. However, by 1846, the relationship had cooled, and while he was on one of his long tours, she became the mistress of another writer,
Charles de Rémusat
Charles François Marie, Comte de Rémusat (, 13 March 1797 – 6 June 1875), was a French politician and writer.
Biography
He was born in Paris. His father, Auguste Laurent, Comte de Rémusat, whose family came from Toulouse, was chamber ...
. His correspondence shows he was desolate when Delessert abandoned him for younger writers Rémusat and then, in 1854, for
Maxime Du Camp
Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer.
Biography
Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...
. One consolation for Mérimée in his last years was a reconciliation with Delessert in 1866.
In 1833 he had a brief romantic liaison with the writer
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
, which ended unhappily. After they spent a night together, they separated without warmth. She told a friend, the actress Marie Darval, "I had Mérimèe last night, and it wasn't much". Darval promptly told her friend
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
, who then told all of his friends. Mérimée promptly counter-attacked, calling her "a woman debauched and cold, by curiosity more than by temperament". They continued to collaborate on common goals. They both played a part in 1834 in the discovery and preservation of ''
The Lady and the Unicorn
''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Par ...
'' tapestries; he declared the tapestries were of historic value, and she publicized them in one of her novels. In 1849 he assisted her when she asked that the paintings in the church of
Nohant
Nohant-Vic () is a commune in the Indre department in central France.
It is located near La Châtre, on the D943, approximately southeast of Châteauroux and consists of two villages, Vic and Nohant, extended along the road.
Geography
The co ...
, where she lived, be classified, which he did. He also provided a subsidy of 600 francs to the church. However, she deeply offended him by openly ridiculing the Empress Eugénie. At their last meeting in 1866, he found her hostile. She came to visit him a few days before his death, but he refused to see her.
When he traveled on his inspection trips around France, he often sought the company of prostitutes. He was often cynical about his relationships, writing, "There are two kinds of women; those who are worth the sacrifice of your life, and those who are worth between five and forty francs. Many years later he wrote to Jenny Dacquin, "It is a fact that at one time of my life I frequented bad society, but I was attracted to it through curiosity only, and I was there as a stranger in a strange country. As for good society, I found it often enough deadly tiresome."
He had a very close friendship with
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...
, who was twenty years older, when they were both aspiring writers, but the friendship later became strained as Mérimée's literary success exceeded that of Stendhal. They traveled together to Rome and Naples in November 1837, but in his correspondence Stendhal complained of the vanity of Mérimée and called him "his Pedantry, Mister Academus". The early death of Stendhal in Paris on 23 March 1842, shocked Mérimée. He offered his correspondence from Stendhal to the ''Revue des deux Mondes'', but the editor refused them as not worthy of attention. In 1850, eight years after the death of Stendhal, Mérimée wrote a brief brochure of sixteen pages describing the romantic adventures that he and Stendhal had had together in Paris, leaving most of the names blank. Only twenty-five copies were made, and distributed to friends of Stendhal. The brochure caused a scandal; Mérimée was denounced as an "atheist" and "blasphemer" by friends of Stendhal for suggesting that Stendhal had ever behaved improperly. He responded that he simply wanted to show that Stendhal was a genius but not a saint.
The poet and critic
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...
compared the personality of Mérimée with that of the painter
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
, both men suddenly thrust into celebrity in the artistic and literary world of Paris. He wrote that they both shared "the same apparent coldness, lightly affected, the same mantle of ice covering a shy sensibility, an ardent passion for the good and the beautiful, the same hypocrisy of egoism, the same devotion to secret friends and to the ideas of perfection".
Politically, Mérimée was a liberal in the style of the
Doctrinaires
During the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and the July Monarchy (1830–1848), the Doctrinals (french: doctrinaires) were a group of French royalists who hoped to reconcile the monarchy with the French Revolution and power with liberty. Hea ...
, welcomed the
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy (french: Monarchie de Juillet), officially the Kingdom of France (french: Royaume de France), was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 26 July 1830, with the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 23 F ...
, and maintained an affection for
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
and
Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin (; 28 November 179214 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As ...
, with whom he maintained a lifelong correspondence.
After the uprisings of 1848, he opted for the stability offered by Emperor Napoleon III, which earned him the ire of the republican opposition such as Victor Hugo.
Despite his close relations with the Emperor, Mérimée remained a committed
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
an and opposed to both "papists" and legitimists (ultra-royalists).
He likewise became more critical of both the domestic and foreign policies of the Empire after 1859, and opposed the military adventures in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
Literary criticism
In his later years, Mérimée had very little good to say about other French and European writers, with a few exceptions, such as his friends
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...
and
Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
. Most of his criticism was contained in his correspondence with his friends. He described the later works of
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
as "words without ideas". Describing ''
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...
'', Mérimée wrote: "What a shame that this man who has such beautiful images at his disposal lacks even a shadow of good sense or modesty, and is unable to refrain from saying these platitudes not worthy of an honest man". He wrote his friend Madame Montijo that the book was "perfectly mediocre; not a moment that is natural". Speaking of
Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
and ''
Madame Bovary
''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities ...
'', he was a little kinder. He wrote: "There is a talent there which he wastes under the pretext of realism". Describing the ''
Fleurs du mal
''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire.
''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...
'' by
Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
, he wrote: "Simply mediocre, nothing dangerous. There are a few sparks of poetry... the work of a poor young man who doesn't know life... I don't know the author, but I'll wager that he is naïve and honest. That's why I hope they don't burn him."
In an essay of October 1851, he attacked the entire genre of
Realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
and
Naturalism in literature: "There is a tendency in almost all of our modern school to arrive at a faithful imitation of nature, but is that the objective of art? I don't believe so".
He was equally scathing in his descriptions of the foreign writers of his time, with the exception of the Russians, particularly Turgenev,
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and
Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
, whom he admired. Of
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
he wrote: "
eis the greatest one among the pygmies. He has the misfortune of being paid by the line, and he loves money". He was even harsher toward the Germans:
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
was "a great humbug",
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...
was a "chaos of obscurity", and of
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
he wrote: "There is nothing like the Germans for audacity in stupidity".
In return, Mérimée was attacked by Victor Hugo, who had admired Mérimée at the beginning of his career, but never forgave him for becoming a senator under
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
. In one of his later poems, he described a scene as being "flat as Mérimée".
Legacy and place in French literature
Mérimée's best-known literary work is the novella ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'', though it is known principally because of the fame of the opera made from the story by
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
after his death. He is also known as one of the pioneers of the short story and novella, and also as an innovator in fantasy fiction. His novellas, particularly ''Colomba'', ''Mateo Falcone'', ''Tamango'' and ''La Vénus d'Ille'', are widely taught in French schools as examples of vivid style and concision.
Mérimée was an important figure in the
Romantic movement
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
of French literature in the 19th century. Like the other Romantics, he used picturesque and exotic settings (particularly Spain and Corsica) to create an atmosphere, and looked more often at the Middle Ages than to classical Greece or Rome for his inspiration. He also frequently used themes of fantasy and the supernatural in his stories, or, like Victor Hugo, used the Middle Ages as his setting. He used a careful selection of details, often noted during his travels, to create the setting. He often wrote about the rapport of force between his characters; man and woman, slave and master, father and son, and his stories often featured extreme passions, violence, cruelty and horror, and usually ended abruptly in a death or tragedy. He told his stories with a certain distance and ironic tone that was particularly his own.
[Mérimée, Prosper, ''Mateo Falcone'', notes and presentation by Caecilia Perl, Flammarion (200), pages 10–13]
His development and mastery of the ''nouvelle'', a long short story or short novel, was another notable contribution to French literature. When he began his writing career in the 1830s, the most prominent genres were the drama (Victor Hugo and
Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay (; 11 December 1810 – 2 May 1857) was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.His names are often reversed "Louis Charles Alfred de Musset": see "(Louis Charles) Alfred de Musset" (bio), Biography.com, 2007 ...
), poetry (Hugo,
Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
and
Vigny), and the autobiography (
Chateaubriand). Mérimée perfected the short story, with an economy of words and action. The contemporary literary critic
Sainte-Beuve wrote: "...He goes right to the fact, and goes immediately into action... his story is clear, lean, alert, vivid. In the dialogues of his characters there is not a useless word, and in his actions he lays out in this advance exactly how and why it will have to happen". In this genre, he was the contemporary of
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
and the predecessor of
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
.
Mérimée's other important cultural legacy is the system of classification of historic monuments that he established, and the major sites that he saved, included the walled citadel of Carcasonne, and his part in the foundation of the
National Museum of Medieval History in Paris. The French national list of heritage monuments is called the
Base Mérimée
The ''Base Mérimée'' is the database of French monumental and architectural heritage, created and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995. The database is periodically updated, and contains ...
in his honor. Another part of his legacy is the discovery and preservation of ''
The Lady and the Unicorn
''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Par ...
'' tapestries now on display in the National Museum of Medieval History.
Mérimée's works have received multiple adaptations in various media. In addition to the multiple adaptations of ''Carmen'', several of his other novellas, notably ''
Lokis'' and ''
La Vénus d'Ille'', have been adapted for film and television.
Works
Dramatic works
* ''Théâtre de Clara Gazul'' – several short satirical pieces purportedly by a Spanish actress, Clara Gazul (1825)
* ''La Jacquerie, scènes féodales'' – dramatic scenes about a
peasant insurrection in the Middle Ages (1828) - the basis for Lalo's opera ''
La jacquerie''
* ''
Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement'' – a comedy about a theatrical troupe, published the ''
Revue de Paris
''Revue de Paris'' was a French literary magazine founded in 1829 by Louis-Désiré Véron. After two years Veron left the magazine to head the Paris Opera
The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded ...
'' (1829; the base of Offenbach's ''
La Périchole
''La Périchole'' () is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French libretto based on the 1829 one act play '' Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement'' by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived o ...
'', and later the film ''
The Golden Coach'' by
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...
)
Poems and ballads
* ''
La Guzla
''La Guzla, ou Choix de poesies illyriques, recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, La Croatie et l'Hertzegowine'' (''The Guzla, or a Selection of Illyric Poems Collected in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovina'') was a 1827 literary h ...
, ou Choix de Poésies Illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Croatie et l'Herzegowine'' – ballads purportedly translated from the original "Illyrian" (i.e.
Croatian) by one Hyacinthe Maglanovich (1827)
Novels
* ''La Chronique du temps de Charles IX'' – a novel set at the French court at the time of the
St. Bartholomew massacre in 1572 (1828)
Novellas
* ''
Mateo Falcone
''Mateo Falcone'' is an 1829 short story by Prosper Mérimée. It first appeared in the May issue of ''Revue de Paris''. Its tightly focused narrative was well received and it has been called the original French short story.
Plot
The narrator rec ...
'' – a novella about a Corsican man who kills his son in the name of justice (published in the ''Revue de Paris''; 1829)
* ''Vision de Charles XI'' – novella published in ''Revue de Paris'' (1829)
* ''L'Enlevement de la Redoute – historical novella published in the ''Revue de Paris'' (1829)
* ''
Tamango'' – historical novella about the slave trade in the 18th century, published in the ''Revue de Paris'' (1829)
* ''Federigo'' – novella published in the ''Revue de Paris'' (1829)
* ''La Vase étrusque'' – novella published in ''Revue de Paris'' (1830)
* ''La Partie de
trictrac
Trictrac is a French board game of skill and chance for two players that is played with dice on a board (game), game board similar, but not identical, to that of backgammon. It was "the classic tables game" of France in the way that backgammon is ...
'' – novella published in the ''Revue de Paris'' (1830)
* ''La Double Meprise'' – novella published in ''Revue de Paris'' (1833)
* ''Mosaïque'' – a collection of the novellas published earlier in the press, as well as three of his letters from Spain (1833)
* ''Les âmes du Purgatoire'' – a novella about the libertine
Don Juan Maraña.
* ''
La Vénus d'Ille'' – a fantastic
horror tale of a bronze statue that seemingly comes to life (1837)
* ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' – a novella describing an unfaithful gypsy girl who is killed by the soldier who loves her (1845). It was later the basis of the opera ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' by
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
(1875)
* ''
Colomba
Colomba is a town, with a population of 28,655 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & towns in ...
'' – a novella about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to commit murder to avenge their father's death (1840)
* ''
Lokis'' – a
horror story, set in
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, about a man who appears to be half-bear and half-man. This was his last work published in his lifetime (1868)
* ''La Chambre bleue'' – a novella that combines a supernatural tale and farce, written for the amusement of the Court of
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
, published after his death
* ''Djoûmane'' – his last novella, published after his death (1870)
History, literature, notes on voyages and archaeology
* ''Lettres d'Espagne'' (''Letters from Spain'') – descriptions of Spanish life, including the first mention of the character Carmen (1831)
* ''Notes d'un voyage dans la midi de la France'' – an account of his first tour as Inspector of Public Monuments (1835)
* ''Notes d'un voyage dans l'ouest de la France'' – description of the monuments of western France (1836)
* ''Notes d'un voyage en Auvergne'' – description of the monuments of the
Auvergne
Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...
(1838)
* ''Notes d'un voyage en Corse'' – description of the monuments of
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
. This trip gave him the material for his next novella, ''
Colomba
Colomba is a town, with a population of 28,655 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & towns in ...
'' (1840)
* ''Essai sur la guerre sociale'' – an essay on the
Social War in ancient Rome (1841)
* ''Mélanges historiques et littéraires'' (1841)
* ''Études sur l'histoire romaine: vol.1 Guerre sociale, vol.II
Conjuration de Catilina'' (1844)
* ''Les Peintures de St.-Savin'' – the first detailed study of the Romanesque murals of the
Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, now a UNESCO World Heritage site (1845)
* ''Histoire de don Pédre, roi de Castille'' – a biography of
Peter of Castile
Peter ( es, Pedro; 30 August 133423 March 1369), called the Cruel () or the Just (), was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for ...
, also known as Peter the Cruel and Peter the Just, ruler of
Castile in the 14th century (1848)
* ''Un Episode de l'histoire de Russie; le faux Demitrius'' – a study of the history of the
False Dmitry The generic name False Dmitry (also Pseudo-Demetrius, russian: Лжедмитрий, ''Lžedmitrij'') refers to various impostors who passed themselves off as the deceased Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich of Russia, the youngest son of Ivan the Terribl ...
in Russian history (1852)
* ''Histoire du regnè de Pierre le Grand'' – first of a series of articles on the reign of
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
of Russia (1864)
* ''Les Cosaques de l'Ukraine et leurs derniers attamans'' (1865)
* ''Les Cosaques d’autrefois'' (1865)
Translations and criticism of Russian literature
* ''La Dame de pique'' (''The Queen of Spades'', "Пиковая дама"), ''Les Bohémiens'' (''The Gypsies'', "Цыганы"), ''Le Hussard'' ("Гусар") (1852) by
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
(1852)
* ''L'Inspecteur général'' (''
The Government Inspector
''The Government Inspector'', also known as ''The Inspector General'' ( rus, links=no, Ревизор, Revizor, literally: "Inspector"), is a satirical play by Russian dramatist and novelist, Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the pla ...
''; "Ревизор") by
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
(1853)
* ''Le Coup de pistolet'' ("Выстрел") by Alexander Pushkin (1856)
* ''Apparitions'' ("Призраки") by
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
(1866)
* Articles on
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
(1852),
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
(1868), Ivan Turgenev (1868)
Correspondence
* ''Lettres à une inconnue'' (''Letters to an unknown'') – a collection of letters from Mérimée to Jenny Dacquin (1874)
* ''Letters to Panizzi'', collection of his letters to the Sir
Anthony Panizzi
Sir Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (16 September 1797 – 8 April 1879), better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a naturalised British citizen of Italian birth, and an Italian patriot. He was a librarian, becoming the Principal Librarian (i.e. head ...
, librarian of the British Museum
* ''General Correspondence'', edited by Parturier, in three volumes (1943)
* "Lettres à Edward Ellice", with an introduction and notes by Marianne Cermakian and France Achener (1963), Bernard Grasset, Paris
[From Notes and presentation by Caecelia Pierl for ''Mateo Falcone and Tamango'' (2013), Flammarion]
Source:
References
Notes and citations
*
Bibliography (in French)
*
*
* Mérimée, Prosper, ''Mateo Falcone, Tamango'' (2013), Flammarion, Presentation and notes by Caecelia Pierl,
* Mérimée, Prosper, ''La Vénus d'Ille et autres nouvelles'', (2016), Librio,
*
Further reading
* Child, T.E. (1880)
"Prosper Mérimée,"''The Gentleman's Magazine,'' Vol. 246, pp. 230–245.
* Cropper, Corry (2004–2005). "Prosper Mérimée and the Subversive 'Historical' Short Story," ''Nineteenth-Century French Studies,'' Vol. 33, No. 1/2, pp. 57–74.
* Dale, R.C. (1966). ''The Poetics of Prosper Merimee''. The Hague/Paris: Mouton & Co.
*
Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain (1993). ''The Lady and the Unicorn.'' Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux.
* Gerould, Daniel (2008). "Playwriting as a Woman: Prosper Mérimée and 'The Theatre of Clara Gazul'," ''PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art,'' Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 120–128.
*
James, Henry (1878)
"Mérimée Letters."In: ''French Poets and Novelists.'' London: Macmillan & Co., pp. 390–402.
* Northup, George T. (1915)
"The Influence of George Borrow upon Prosper Mérimée,"''Modern Philology,'' Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 143–156.
*
Pater, Walter H. (1900)
"Prosper Mérimée."In: ''Studies in European Literature.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 31–53.
* Raitt, A. W. "History and Fiction in the Works of Merimee." '' History Today'' (Apr 1969), Vol. 19 Issue 4, pp 240–247 online.
* Sivert, Eileen Boyd (1978). "Fear and Confrontation in Prosper Mérimée's Narrative Fiction," ''Nineteenth-Century French Studies,'' Vol. 6, No. 3/4, pp. 213–230.
*Sprenger, Scott (2009). "Mérimée’s Literary Anthropology: Residual Sacrality and Marital Violence in 'Lokis,'
Anthropoetics XIV, no. 2 Winter 2009
*
Symons, Arthur (1919)
"Prosper Mérimée."In: ''The Symbolist Movement in Literature.'' New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, pp. 43–68.
* Thorold, Algar (1909)
"Prosper Mérimée."In: ''Six Masters in Disillusion.'' London: Archibald Constable & Co., pp. 26–55.
* Wells, B. W. (1898)
"The Fiction of Prosper Mérimée,"''The Sewanee Review,'' Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 167–179.
External links
*
*
*
Mérimée's works, a bibliography and a chronology of his life in English atBrigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merimee, Prosper
1803 births
1870 deaths
Writers from Paris
French fantasy writers
French archaeologists
19th-century French historians
Russian–French translators
Translators of Alexander Pushkin
Spanish–French translators
Members of the Académie Française
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Burials at the Cimetière du Grand Jas
Lycée Henri-IV alumni
19th-century translators
19th-century French novelists