Prosper Mérimée
Encyclopedia
Prosper Mérimée was a French
dramatist, historian
, archaeologist
, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen
, which became the basis of Bizet
's opera Carmen
.
. He studied law
as well as Greek
, Spanish
, English
, and Russian
. He was the first interpreter of much Russian literature in France.
Mérimée loved mysticism
, history, the unusual, and mystification (in the latter he was influenced by Charles Nodier
), the historical fiction popularised by Sir Walter Scott and the cruelty and psychological drama of Aleksandr Pushkin
. Many of his stories are mysteries set in foreign places, Spain
and Russia
being popular sources of inspiration.
In 1834, Mérimée was appointed to the post of inspector-general of historical monuments. He was a born archaeologist, combining linguistic faculty of a very unusual kind with accurate scholarship, with remarkable historical appreciation, and with a sincere love for the arts of design and construction, in the former of which he had some practical skill. In his official capacity he published numerous letters and reports, some of which, with other similar pieces, have been republished in his works.
Mérimée met and befriended the Countess of Montijo in Spain in 1830 whom he credited as being his source for the Carmen story. Together with the countess, he coached her daughter, Eugenie, during the courtship with Napoleon III (though his correspondence indicates he was opposed to their marriage). When the daughter became the Empress Eugénie of France in 1853, he was made a senator.
In 1841, Prosper Mérimée and his friend George Sand
made a major contribution to the history of medieval art by discovering the luminous tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn
during a stay at the Château de Boussac in the Limousin district of central France, which entered immediately into history thanks to the writings of George Sand.
Prosper Mérimée died in Cannes
, France
and was interred there in the Cimetière du Grand Jas
.
The French national list of heritage monuments is called the Base Mérimée
is his honour.
He was engaged in protest campaign against the demolition of the Cité de Carcassonne
.
Critics
Translation from Russian
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
dramatist, historian
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen
Carmen (novella)
"Carmen" is a novella by Prosper Mérimée, written and first published in 1845. It has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous opera by Georges Bizet.-Sources:...
, which became the basis of Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's opera Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
.
Life
Prosper Mérimée was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
as well as Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. He was the first interpreter of much Russian literature in France.
Mérimée loved mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, history, the unusual, and mystification (in the latter he was influenced by Charles Nodier
Charles Nodier
Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier , was a French author who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the conte fantastique, gothic literature, vampire tales, and the importance of dreams as part of literary creation, and whose career as a librarian is often underestimated by literary...
), the historical fiction popularised by Sir Walter Scott and the cruelty and psychological drama of Aleksandr Pushkin
Aleksandr Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian author of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature....
. Many of his stories are mysteries set in foreign places, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
being popular sources of inspiration.
In 1834, Mérimée was appointed to the post of inspector-general of historical monuments. He was a born archaeologist, combining linguistic faculty of a very unusual kind with accurate scholarship, with remarkable historical appreciation, and with a sincere love for the arts of design and construction, in the former of which he had some practical skill. In his official capacity he published numerous letters and reports, some of which, with other similar pieces, have been republished in his works.
Mérimée met and befriended the Countess of Montijo in Spain in 1830 whom he credited as being his source for the Carmen story. Together with the countess, he coached her daughter, Eugenie, during the courtship with Napoleon III (though his correspondence indicates he was opposed to their marriage). When the daughter became the Empress Eugénie of France in 1853, he was made a senator.
In 1841, Prosper Mérimée and his friend George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
made a major contribution to the history of medieval art by discovering the luminous tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn
The Lady and the Unicorn
The Lady and the Unicorn is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders of wool and silk, from designs drawn in Paris in the late fifteenth century, The suite, on display in the Musée du Moyen-Âge, is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle...
during a stay at the Château de Boussac in the Limousin district of central France, which entered immediately into history thanks to the writings of George Sand.
Prosper Mérimée died in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and was interred there in the Cimetière du Grand Jas
Cimetière du Grand Jas
The Cimetière du Grand Jas 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 decorations and statuary.Its "English square" or Cimetière Anglais, is the final...
.
The French national list of heritage monuments is called the Base Mérimée
Base Mérimée
The Base Mérimée is the French database of monuments listed as having national significance in history, architecture or art. It was created in 1978, and placed online in 1995, by the French Ministry of Culture, division of architectural heritage. The database is periodically updated...
is his honour.
He was engaged in protest campaign against the demolition of the Cité de Carcassonne
Cité de Carcassonne
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval fortified architectural group located in the French city of Carcassonne, in the department of Aude, in the region of Languedoc-Roussillon. It is located on the right bank of the Aude, on the hill, in the south-east part of the actual city. It was the historic...
.
Works
- Cromwell (1822) - his first play. It was never published and no copies exist. Mérimée felt its similarities with contemporary French politics were too obvious and he destroyed the manuscript.
- Le Théâtre de Clara Gazul (1825) - a hoax, supposedly a translation by one Joseph L'Estrange of work written by a Spanish actress. These plays, written before Hugo's Hernani, can be considered early examples of French "romanticisme" as defined by Mérimée's friend StendhalStendhalMarie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
in his Racine et Shakespeare. - La GuzlaLa GuzlaLa Guzla, ou Choix de poesies illyriques, recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, La Croatie et l'Hertzegowine was a 1827 literary hoax of Prosper Mérimée....
, ou Choir de Poesies Illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Croatie et l'Herzegowine (1827) - another hoax, ballads about various mystical themes purportedly translated from the original "Illyrian" (i.e. Serbo-CroatianSerbo-CroatianSerbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
) by one Hyacinthe Maglanowich. These ballads had considerable influence, translated into Russian, notably by Pushkin and Lermontov. - La Jacquerie (1828) - dramatic scenes about a peasant insurrection in feudal times.
- La Chronique du temps de Charles IX (1829) - a novel set at the French court at the time of the St. Bartholomew massacre (1572) (made into an opéra comiqueOpéra comiqueOpéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
Le pré aux clercsLe Pré aux clercsLe pré aux clercs is an opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.-Performance history:...
by Ferdinand Hérold in 1832). - "Mateo Falcone" (1829) - a short story about a Corsican man who kills his son in the name of justice (made into an opera of the same name by the Russian composer César CuiCésar CuiCésar Antonovich Cui was a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. His profession was as an army officer and a teacher of fortifications; his avocational life has particular significance in the history of music, in that he was a composer and music critic; in this sideline he is known as a...
) - Le Carrosse du Saint Sacrement (1829) - a comedy about a theatrical troupe (made into the film The Golden CoachThe Golden CoachThe Golden Coach is a 1952 film directed by Jean Renoir that tells the story of a commedia dell'arte troupe in 18th century Peru. The screenplay was written by Renoir, Jack Kirkland, Renzo Avanzo and Giulio Macchi and is based on the play, Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée...
by Jean RenoirJean RenoirJean Renoir 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 era to the end of the 1960s...
) - Mosaïque (1833) - a collection of short stories, containing: "Mateo Falcone", "Vision de Charles XI", "L'enlèvement de la redoute", "Tamango, "Le fusil enchanté", "Federigo", "Ballades", "La partie de trictrac", "Le vase étrusque", "Les mécontents". It also includes three of his letters from Spain. Most of these tales were previously published in the Revue de Paris in 1829 and 1830.
- Les âmes du Purgatoire (1834) - a novella about the libertine Don Juan Maraña.
- La Vénus d'IlleLa Vénus d'IlleLa Vénus d'Ille is a short story by Prosper Mérimée. It was written in 1835 and published in 1837. It 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.-Plot summary:...
(18371837 in literatureThe year 1837 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* The Little, Brown and Company publishing house opens its doors.* First publication of the The United States Magazine and Democratic Review.-New books:...
) - a fantastic horrorHorror fictionHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
tale of a bronze statue that seemingly comes to life. - Notes de voyages (1835–40) - describing his travels through Greece, Spain, Turkey, and France.
- ColombaColomba (novella)Colomba is a short story by Prosper Mérimée which first appeared on the 1st of July, 1840 in the Revue des Deux Mondes, and was first published as a single volume in 1841 by Magen et Comon.- Plot Summary :...
(1840) - his first famous novella about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to commit murder to avenge their father's death. - CarmenCarmen (novella)"Carmen" is a novella by Prosper Mérimée, written and first published in 1845. It has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous opera by Georges Bizet.-Sources:...
(1845) - another famous novella describing an unfaithful gypsy girl who is killed by the soldier who loves her (made into an opera by Georges BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
in 1875). - Lokis (1869) – set in Lithuania, it is the horrorHorror fictionHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
story of a man who, it would seem, is half bear and half man. - La Chambre bleue (1872) - a farce that has all the trappings of a supernatural tale but in the end turns out to be anything but.
- Lettres à une inconnue (1874) - a collection of letters from Mérimée to Jenny Dacquin, published after his death.
Critics
- Articles on Nikolai GogolNikolai GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
(1852), Alexander Pushkin (1868), Ivan TurgenevIvan TurgenevIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
(1868)
Translation from Russian
- La Dame de pique (The Queen of Spades, "Пиковая дама"), Les Bohémiens (The Gypsies, "Цыганы"), Le Hussard ("Гусар") (1852), from Pushkin.
- L'Inspecteur général (1853) from GogolNikolai GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
's The Government Inspector ("Ревизор"). - Le Coup de pistolet ("Выстрел") (1856), from Pushkin.
- Apparitions ("Призраки") (1866), from TurgenevIvan TurgenevIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
.
External links
- Mérimée's works, a bibliography and a chronology of his life in English: http://frenital.byu.edu/merimee/