Mérimée, Prosper (prôspĕr` mārēmā`), 1803–70, French author. He first wrote a collection of plays in imitation of Spanish drama, The Plays of Clara Gazul (1825, tr. 1825), and a collection of so-called Illyrian ballads, La Guzla (1827). His important historical novel, The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX (1829; tr. 1830, 1890), is marked by an objectivity and psychological penetration rare among the romanticists. He was master of a concise and understated style, most fully realized in his nouvelles, or long stories, for which he is best known. Outstanding examples include Colomba (1852, tr. 1853); Carmen (in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1845; as a book, 1846, tr. 1881), which was the basis of Bizet's opera; La Vénus d'Ille (1837); and Letters to an Unknown (in Revue des Deux Mondes, 1873; as a book, 1874, tr. 1874). His short story, "Mateo Falcone" (1876), is a masterpiece of the genre. A cultivated man of the world, Mérimée was a student of archaeology, a linguist who translated Russian authors into French, and a senator under the Empire. He also wrote literary and art criticism and historical studies.

Bibliography

See biography by A. W. Raitt (1970); study by M. A. Smith (1973).

Mérimée, Prosper

(born Sept. 28, 1803, Paris, France—died Sept. 23, 1870, Cannes) French short-story writer and dramatist. In youth a student of languages and literatures, he wrote his first play, Cromwell (1922), at age 19. His passions were mysticism, history, and the unusual. His stories, often mysteries, were inspired mainly by Spanish and Russian sources, notably Aleksandr Pushkin; they include Mateo Falcone (1829), the collection Mosaïque (1833), and the novellas Colomba (1840) and Carmen (1845), the basis of Georges Bizet's opera. He also wrote works of history and archaeology, historical fiction, and literary criticism and carried on correspondences that were published posthumously. He became a senator in 1853.