The great short story writer was born on September 28, 1803 in the family of the artist, polytechnic school teacher, and chemist Jean François Leonor Mérimée, whose wife, the writer’s mother, also successfully painted. Father Merimee was a supporter of the new order of things, brought up in the spirit of the ideas of the 18th century. Thanks to his father, young Merimee early developed an elegant taste and cult of art.

In 1811, Prosper Merimee entered the Lyceum of Emperor Napoleon (now Henry IV), and proved himself to be an unusually gifted student. After graduating from the Lyceum, Prosper, on the advice of his father, began preparing for the legal profession in 1819 and four years later became a licentiate of law.

After graduating from a course in legal sciences in Paris, he was appointed secretary of the Count d'Artou, one of the ministers of the July Monarchy.

He had a cool attitude towards jurisprudence. As a 16-year-old schoolboy, with his friend Ampere (the son of a physicist), he translated the “Songs” of the never-existent Celtic bard Ossian. It was a brilliant forgery by Scottish folklorist James Macpherson.

Merimee made his debut in the literary field when he was only 20 years old. His first experience was the historical drama "Cromwell". Mérimée read it in Delescluze's circle; it earned Bayle's warm praise as a bold departure from the classical rules of the unity of time and action. Despite the approval of his circle of friends, Merimee was dissatisfied with his first work, and it did not make it into print, so it is difficult to judge its merits (this was even before the literary revolution undertaken by V. Hugo).

The publication of another work was associated with a daring hoax that caused a lot of speculation. Merimee passed off his collection as the work of a certain Spanish actress and public figure, Clara Gasul, whom he had fictitious.

To be convincing, he invented a biography of Clara Gasul and listed it in the collection, not wanting to advertise himself as the author of the book due to the political sensitivity of its content and the severity of royal censorship.

Merimee's next literary work to appear in print was also a hoax: his famous "Guzla". This book caused a lot of noise in Europe and is considered one of the examples of a clever and witty counterfeit of folk motifs.

Mérimée's forgery misled many, including Mickiewicz and Pushkin. The Book of Illyrian Folk Songs turned out to be such a masterful stylization of Serbian folklore that Mérimée's hoax was a brilliant success. Pushkin and Mitskevich accepted the poems of "Guzly" as a creation of Slavic folk poetry. Mickiewicz translated the ballad "Morlakv of Venice", and Pushkin included a reworking of eleven poems from "Guzly" in his "Songs of the Western Slavs".

Goethe published an analysis of “Guzla” in a German newspaper, in which he expressed doubt about the authenticity of the songs of the Dalmatian bard. However, in Auposten Philo's book "Merimee et ses amis", Merimee's unpublished letters to Stapfer are published, from which it is clear that Goethe's insight can be explained very simply - Merimee, sending him "Guzla", quite clearly hinted that he himself was the author of these songs.

In a letter from Merimee to Sobolevsky dated January 18, 1835, written at the request of Pushkin, Merimee explains that the reason for compiling “Guzla” was the desire to ridicule the then dominant desire among writers to describe local color, and to obtain funds for traveling to Italy. Merimee repeated the same explanation in the second edition of Guzla. French biographers of Mérimée are amazed at the art with which the 23-year-old Parisian managed to find bright colors to express the motives of folk poetry completely unfamiliar to him.

In 1828, the printing house owned by Honore de Balzac printed Mérimée's historical drama "The Jacquerie". In it, Mérimée depicted the events of the Jacquerie, the largest anti-feudal uprising of the French peasantry that unfolded in the 14th century.

The life of medieval society appears in "The Jacquerie" in the form of an ongoing harsh and bloody social struggle. Merimee insightfully reveals the contradictions of social life.

In 1829, in the novel “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX,” Merimee describes the events of the religious wars.

Merimee comprehends the events of the civil war of the 16th century. For him, St. Bartholomew's Night is a coup d'état carried out from above, but which became possible only because it was supported by wide circles of ordinary French people.

For Merimee, the true roots of St. Bartholomew's Night lie not in the treachery and ruthlessness of representatives of the ruling circles of France in the 16th century, nor in the monstrous immorality and criminality of Charles IX, Catherine de Medici or Henry of Guise. The main blame for the bloodshed that took place, for the fratricidal turmoil that brought untold disasters to France and brought it to the brink of a national catastrophe, falls on the fanatical clerics who inflame prejudices and savage instincts among the people. In this respect, for Mérimée there is no difference between the Catholic priests who bless human slaughter and the Protestant priests who are mad with hatred and frenzied.

St. Bartholomew's Night, as Merimee shows, was generated not only by religious fanaticism, but at the same time by the ulcers that corroded noble society.

"Chronicle of the reign of Charles IX" completes the first stage of Merimee's literary activity. The July Revolution causes significant changes in the writer’s life. During the Restoration, the Bourbon government tried to attract Mérimée to public service. After the July Revolution in February 1831, influential friends secured for Mérimée the position of head of the office of the Minister of Naval Affairs. He then moved to the Ministry of Trade and Public Works, and from there to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Religion. Merimee carried out his duties as an official in the most careful manner, but they weighed heavily on him. The morals of the ruling environment repulsed and outraged him. In letters to Stendhal, he does not speak of its representatives except with contempt, emphasizes their “disgusting baseness,” calls them “bastards,” and deputies of parliament “animals.”

While in the service of the government of Louis-Philippe, Mérimée in one of his letters defined the July Monarchy as “... the rule of 459 grocers, each of whom thinks only of his own private interests.” During the first three years of public service, Mérimée completely abandoned artistic creativity, but in 1834 Mérimée received the post of inspector general of the commission for historical monuments, corresponding to his personal inclinations and scientific interests.

Merimee, holding this position for almost twenty years, played a significant role in the history of the country's artistic culture. He managed to save many beautiful ancient monuments, churches, sculptures and frescoes from destruction and damage. Through his activities, he contributed to the development of interest in Romanesque and Gothic art, and its scientific study. Official duties prompted Merimee to make repeated long trips around the country. Their fruit was books in which Mérimée combined descriptions and analysis of the monuments he had studied, alternating these scientific materials with travel sketches. Merimee wrote a number of special archaeological and art works over the years. He also began to engage in purely historical research, the most significant of which was devoted to the history of Rome.

During the years of the Restoration, Merimee was interested in depicting large social cataclysms, creating broad social canvases, developing historical subjects; his attention was attracted by large monumental genres. In his fiction from the 30s and 40s, he delved into the depiction of ethical conflicts, paying more attention to modern themes. Merimee almost does not engage in drama, focusing her interest on a small narrative form - a short story, and achieving outstanding creative results in this area.

Critical and humanistic tendencies are vividly embodied in Merimee’s short stories, as in his previous works, but they change their focus. Social changes are reflected in the writer’s work in the depiction of bourgeois conditions of existence as a force that levels out human individuality, fosters petty, base interests in people, instills hypocrisy and selfishness, and is hostile to the formation of whole and strong people, capable of all-consuming, selfless feelings. The scope of reality narrowed in Merimee's short stories, but the writer penetrated deeper - in comparison with the works of the 20s - into the inner world of a person, more consistently showing the conditioning of his character by the external environment.

After the creatively fruitful year of 1829, Merimee’s artistic activity subsequently developed less rapidly. Now he is not so actively involved in everyday literary life, publishes his works less often, nurturing them for a long time, painstakingly finishing their form, achieving its utmost precision and simplicity. When working on short stories, the writer’s artistic skill reaches particular sharpness and perfection.

Since the 1830s, he wrote mainly short stories, which belong to the best examples of French prose: “Matteo Falcone” (1829) - a ruthlessly realistic story of Corsican life; "The Taking of the Redoubt" (1829) is an excellent battle scene; "Tamango" (1829) is a furious account of the African slave trade; Colomba (1840) is a powerful tale of the Corsican vendetta; “Carmen” (1845) is the most famous of all, the basis for the libretto of Bizet’s opera.

In "Carmen" the readers were presented with a narrator, an inquisitive scientist and traveler, a representative of a sophisticated European civilization. It contains autobiographical details. He resembles Merimee himself with the humanistic features of his worldview. But an ironic smile slides across the author’s lips when he reproduces the narrator’s scientific research, showing their speculativeness and abstraction.

In 1844, the writer was elected to the French Academy.

Merimee was attracted by wild, original customs, which retained the original and bright color of antiquity. Merimee published several works on the history of Greece, Rome and Italy, based on the study of sources.

Published on March 15, 1844, the short story "Arsene Guillot" by Merimee was perceived by secular society as a daring challenge. The guardians of secular decency declared immorality and violation of the truth of life. The academicians, who the day before the publication of Arsene Guillot cast their votes for Merimee in the elections to the French Academy, now condemned the writer and disowned him. The revolution of 1848 was approaching, which determined a new serious turn in his creative development.

Initially, the revolutionary events did not cause much concern for Mérimée: he was sympathetic to the establishment of the republic. However, the writer’s mood gradually changes and becomes more and more alarming: he anticipates the inevitability of a further aggravation of social contradictions and fears it. The June days and the workers' uprising exacerbated his fears.

It is the fear of new revolutionary uprisings of the proletariat that prompts Merimee to accept the coup d'etat of Louis Bonaparte and come to terms with the establishment of a dictatorship in the country. During the years of the Empire, Merimee turned out to be one of the close associates of Napoleon III and his court, as a result of many years of friendship with the family of the Spanish aristocrat Eugenia Montijo, who became the Empress of France in 1853. His social position during the years of the Empire evoked sharp condemnation among the democratically minded French intelligentsia.

During the reign of Napoleon III, Mérimée enjoyed great influence, being one of the closest friends of the imperial couple. In 1852 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, and a year later he was elevated to the rank of senator.

Although Mérimée enjoyed the full confidence and personal friendship of Napoleon III, his career and politics weighed heavily on the writer. While still studying law in Paris, Mérimée became friends with Ampère and Albert Stapfer. The latter brought him into the house of his father, who gathered a circle of people devoted to the sciences and arts. His literary evenings were attended not only by the French, but also by the British, Germans (Humboldt, Mol) and even Russians (S. A. Sobolevsky, Melgunov). At Stapfer's, Merimee met and became friends with Bayle (Stendhal) and Delecluse, who headed the criticism department at the Revue de Paris. He borrowed from them an interest in studying the literatures of other peoples.

Stendhal captivated Merimee with the fighting spirit of his political convictions and the irreconcilability of his hostility towards the Restoration regime. It was he who introduced Merimee to the teachings of Helvetius and Condillac, with the ideas of their student Cabanis, and directed the aesthetic thought of the future author of the preface to the “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” along a materialist channel. Mérimée drew a lot from the artistic program put forward by Stendhal in the literary manifesto Racine and Shakespeare.

The universality of Mérimée's literary education markedly distinguished him from other French writers of that time. Merimee was one of the first in France to appreciate the dignity of Russian literature and began to learn to read Russian in order to read the works of Pushkin and Gogol in the original.

He was a great admirer of Pushkin, whom he translated for the French public and devoted an excellent sketch to his assessment. According to the review of Ivan Turgenev, who personally knew Merimee, this French academician, in the presence of Victor Hugo, called Pushkin the greatest poet of our era, on a par with Byron.

“Pushkin,” Merimee said and wrote, “has an amazing combination of form and content; in his poems, enchanting with their graceful charm, there is always more content than words, like Byron; poetry blossoms in him as if by itself from the most sober truth.”

From his correspondence with Countess Montijo it is clear that in the late 40s he was seriously engaged in the study of Russian literature. In 1849 he translated Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", and in 1851 he published an interesting sketch about Gogol in the "Revue des deux Mondes". In 1853 his translation of The Inspector General was published. Ustryalov Merimee devoted several articles to the “History of Peter the Great” in the “Journal des Savants”; There he also published several essays from the history of our Cossacks about Stenka Razin and Bogdan Khmelnitsky.

The history of the Time of Troubles especially interested him; he wrote "Le faux Demetrius" and then used the study of this era to depict it artistically. Mérimée was a great admirer of Turgenev and wrote the preface to the French translation of Fathers and Sons, published in Paris in 1864.

A significant role in Merimee's short stories is played by the writer's artistic embodiment of his positive ideal. In a number of early short stories, for example, in “The Etruscan Vase” and “Backgammon Party,” Merimee connects the search for this ideal with images of honest, most principled representatives of the dominant society.

Merimee increasingly persistently turns in her work to people standing outside this society, to representatives of the popular environment. In their minds, Merimee reveals those spiritual qualities that, in his opinion, have been lost by bourgeois circles: integrity of character and passion of nature, selflessness and inner independence. The theme of the people as the guardian of the vital energy of the nation, as the bearer of high ethical ideals, played a significant role in the work of Merimee of the 30s and 40s.

At the same time, Merimee was far from the revolutionary republican movement of his time and was hostile to the struggle of the working class. Merimee, this “genius of timelessness,” according to Lunacharsky’s expression, tried to look for the romance of folk life that excited his imagination in countries that had not yet been absorbed by bourgeois civilization, in Corsica (“Mateo Falcone,” “Colomba”) and in Spain (“Carmen”). However, when creating images of heroes - people from the people, Merimee did not seek to idealize the patriarchal and primitive side of their way of life. He did not hide the negative aspects of their consciousness, generated by the backwardness and poverty that surrounded them.

In 1860 he resigned due to illness; in the last years of his life, asthma forced him to move from Paris to the south of France.

Merimee, the short story writer, significantly deepened the depiction of the inner world of man in literature. Psychological analysis in Merimee's short stories is inseparable from the disclosure of the social reasons that give rise to the characters' experiences.

Unlike the romantics, Merimee did not like to go into lengthy descriptions of emotions. He preferred to reveal the characters' experiences through their gestures and actions. His attention in the short stories is focused on the development of action: he strives to motivate this development as succinctly and expressively as possible, to convey its internal tension.

The composition of Merimee's short stories is always carefully thought out and balanced. In his short stories, the writer does not limit himself to depicting the climactic moments of the conflict. He willingly reproduces his backstory, sketches out concise, but rich in vital material, characteristics of his heroes.

In Merimee's short stories, the satirical element plays a significant role. His favorite weapon is irony, veil, and a caustic satirical grin. Merimee resorts to it with particular brilliance, exposing the falsity, duplicity, and vulgarity of bourgeois morals

Merimee's short stories are the most popular part of his literary heritage. Mérimée's work is one of the most brilliant pages in the history of French literature of the 19th century.

At the end of his life, Merimee wrote in his letters: “I’m tired of life, I don’t know what to do with myself. It seems to me that I don’t have a single friend left in the whole wide world. I lost everyone I loved: some died, others changed.”

Two pen pals, he still has two correspondents. He wrote to one of them in 1855 about the mania that had developed in him: “It’s too late for me to get married, but I would like to find some little girl and raise her. More than once the idea came to me to buy such a child from a gypsy woman, for, even if my upbringing did not bring good results, I still would not make the little creature any more unhappy. What do you say to this? And how would one get such a girl? The trouble is that gypsies are very black and their hair is like a horse's mane. And why don’t you have some golden-haired girl that you could give up to me?”

In 1867, due to developing lung disease, he settled in Cannes, where he died three years later - on September 23, 1870, five days short of his 67th birthday. In Paris, meanwhile, his archive and library burned down, and what was spared by the fire was stolen and sold by servants.

The last story published during Mérimée's lifetime was "Lokis". After Mérimée's death, Dernieres novelles and his letters were published.

Turgenev responded to the death of his French friend in this way:

“I also did not know a person less vain. Mérimée was the only Frenchman who did not wear the rosette of the Legion of Honor in his buttonhole (he was a commander of this order). Over the years, that half-mocking, half-sympathetic, essentially deeply humane view of life, which is characteristic of skeptical but kind minds who carefully and constantly studied human morals, their weaknesses and passions, developed more and more in him.”

Merimee himself admitted at the end of his days:

“If I could start my life over again, with my current experience, I would try to be a hypocrite and flatter everyone. Now the game is no longer worth the candle, but, on the other hand, it’s somehow sad to think that people only like you under a mask and that when you take it off, you will turn out to be hated by them.”

The Frenchman Prosper Merimee is known to us as a writer. His books have long been translated into Russian. Operas have been written and films made based on his works. However, he was also a historian, ethnographer, archaeologist and translator, academician and senator. If the reader wants to immerse himself in the past, described in detail down to the smallest detail, then Mérimée's works are a good way to travel back in time.

Childhood and youth

The only son of wealthy parents was born in Paris on September 28, 1803. The common hobby of the chemist Jean François Leonore Mérimée and his wife, whose maiden name was Anne Moreau, was painting. Artists and writers, musicians and philosophers gathered around the table in the living room. Conversations about art shaped the boy's interests: he looked at paintings with great attention and enthusiastically read the works of freethinkers of the 18th century.

He was fluent in Latin and spoke English from early childhood. Anglophilia was a tradition in the family. Prosper's great-grandmother, Marie Leprince de Beaumont, lived in England for seventeen years. His grandmother Moreau married in London. Young Englishmen came to the house and took private painting lessons from Jean François Leonor.

Prosper spent several years of his early childhood in Dalmatia, where his father was under Marshal Marmont. This detail of the writer’s biography explains his deep and emotional perception of folk poetry, the motives of which Merimee wove into his work. At the age of eight, Prosper entered the seventh grade of the Imperial Lyceum as an external student, and after graduation, at the insistence of his father, he studied law at the Sorbonne.

The father dreamed of a career as a lawyer for his son, but the young man was not enthusiastic about this prospect. After graduating from university, young Mérimée was appointed secretary of the Comte d'Argoux, one of the ministers of the July Monarchy. Later he became the chief inspector of historical monuments of France. The study of monuments of art and architecture stimulated the writer’s creative energy and served as a source of inspiration.

Literature

Prosper Merimee began his journey in literature with a hoax. The author of the collection of plays was named the Spaniard Clara Gasul, who did not exist in reality. Merimee’s second book is a collection of Serbian folk songs “Guzla”. As it turned out, the author of the texts did not collect them in Dalmatia, but simply composed them. The fake Merimee turned out to be so talented that she even misled her.

The historical drama "Jacquerie" no longer set the goal of misleading the reader, but painted a picture of a medieval peasant uprising in all its ugly details. The struggle for power between feudal lords and clerics is described in equally detailed and realistic terms in “The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX,” the writer’s only novel. Prosper Merimee's short stories brought him worldwide fame.

The most famous to the reader is “Carmen”. The story from the life of freedom-loving Spanish gypsies was adapted for the stage, supplemented with music and colorful dances, and filmed. The beautiful story of the tragic love of a gypsy woman and a Spaniard still excites readers and viewers. The images in the other “folk” and “exotic” short stories are no less vividly depicted. For example, the runaway slave in Tamango.

Traveling around Europe, Merimee subtly noticed the characteristic national traits of peoples and endowed them with the characters. The Corsicans inspired him to create Matteo Falcone and Colomba. The writer also conceived the plot of “Venus of Illa” while traveling. Creating a mystical atmosphere was not easy for the author, but he did the job brilliantly. Prosper Merimee called this story his masterpiece.

Personal life

Prosper Merimee was not married and enjoyed the status of a bachelor all his life. Many details of the writer’s love affairs were revealed to inquisitive readers after his death. Friends and lovers published the surviving correspondence, revealing secrets that, however, Prosper never really hid. The wild adventures of the young rake in the company of Merimee created a bad reputation.

The love affair with Charlotte Marie Valentina Josephine Deleser lasted the longest. The wife of the banker Gabriel Deleser, the mother of two children, bestowed her favor on Prosper from the early thirties until 1852. Simultaneously with this relationship, an affair developed with Zhenya (Jeanne Françoise) Daquin, who became famous thanks to the publication of the writer’s letters that she had preserved.

The girl started a correspondence. Wanting to meet the famous writer, she composed a letter on behalf of the fictional Lady Algernon Seymour, who planned to illustrate “The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX.” Merimee took the bait. Anticipating another affair, he entered into correspondence with a stranger, simultaneously trying to find out her identity from his English friends.

After several months of correspondence, on December 29, 1832, Mérimée met a mysterious stranger in Boulogne. Merimee hid his acquaintance with Jenny. Only close friends, Stendhal and Sutton Sharp, were aware. On the one hand, he did not want to compromise a decent girl from a bourgeois family, on the other, he already had an “official” mistress. The fleeting affair between Prosper and Jenny eventually grew into a close friendship, which was interrupted by the death of the writer.

In the 50s, Merimee was very lonely. After his father's death, he lived alone with his mother for fifteen years. In 1852, Anna Merimee died. The relationship with Valentina Deleser ended in a final break that same year. The ebullient creative energy began to dry up. Old age has arrived.

Death

In the 60s, Merimee's health deteriorated. He is bothered by attacks of suffocation (asthma), his legs swell, and his heart hurts. In 1867, due to a progressive illness, the writer settled in Cannes, where he died three years later - on September 23, 1870. Gloomy forebodings overwhelmed him before his death. On July 19, 1870, France declared war on Prussia; Mérimée expected a disaster and did not want to see it.

In Paris, his archive and library burned down, and the remaining things were stolen and sold by servants. Prosper Mérimée was buried in the Grand Jas cemetery. After the writer’s death, the collection “Last Novels” was published, the best of which critics call the story “The Blue Room”. Personal correspondence also became available to readers.

Bibliography

Novel

• 1829 - “Chronicle of the reign of Charles IX”

Novels

• 1829 - “Matteo Falcone”
• 1829 - "Tamango"
• 1829 - “Taking the Redoubt”
• 1829 - "Federigo"
• 1830 - “Backgammon Party”
• 1830 - “Etruscan Vase”
• 1832 - “Letters from Spain”
• 1833 - "Double Fault"
• 1834 - “Souls of Purgatory”
• 1837 - “Venus of Ill”
• 1840 - "Colomba"
• 1844 - “Arsene Guillot”
• 1844 - "Abbé Aubin"
• 1845 - “Carmen”
• 1846 - “Lady Lucretia’s Lane”
• 1869 - "Lokis"
• 1870 - "Juman"
• 1871 - “The Blue Room”

Plays

• 1825 - “Theater of Clara Gazul”
• 1828 - "Jacquerie"
• 1830 - "The Discontented"
• 1832 - “The Enchanted Gun”
• 1850 - “Two Inheritances or Don Quixote”
• 1853 - “Debut of an Adventurer”

Other

• 1827 - “Gusli”
• 1829 - “The Pearl of Toledo”
• 1832 - "Ban of Croatia"
• 1832 - “The Dying Haiduk”
• 1835 - “Notes on a trip to the south of France”
• 1836 - “Notes on a trip to the west of France”
• 1837 - “Study of Religious Architecture”
• 1838 - “Notes on a trip to Auvergne”
• 1841 - “Notes on a trip to Corsica”
• 1841 - “An Essay on the Civil War”
• 1845 - “Studies in Roman History”
• 1847 - “The History of Don Pedro I, King of Castile”
• 1850 - “Henri Bayle (Stendhal)”
• 1851 - “Russian literature. Nikolay Gogol"
• 1853 - “Episode from Russian history. False Dmitry"
• 1853 - "Mormons"
• 1856 - “Letters to Panizzi”
• 1861 - “The Rebellion of Stenka Razin”
• 1863 - “Bogdan Khmelnitsky”
• 1865 - “Cossacks of Ukraine and their last atamans”
• 1868 - “Ivan Turgenev”
• 1873 - “Letters to a Stranger”

(1803-1870) French writer

Prosper Merimee was born in Paris into the family of an artist. Thanks to his parents, Prosper was interested in art from childhood, drew well, and spoke fluent English. After graduating from college, the young man wanted to become an artist, but his father convinced him to take up law. In 1820, he entered the law faculty of the Sorbonne, where he began to study not only law, but also classical and modern languages. During this period he became interested in history, archeology and literature. Merimee met Stendhal, who was 20 years older than him. Friendship with the great writer had a great influence on the formation of Merimee's views.

Having entered the service in one of the ministries in 1825, he devoted himself entirely to literature. His debut as a writer was successful - he immediately became famous. His first work was published in 1825. It was a collection of plays under the general title “The Theater of Clara Gazul.” In the preface to the collection, Prosper Merimee announced that the author of the plays was the Spanish actress Gazul, and he himself was only a translator. The collection contained a portrait of Merimee in a Spanish woman's dress, passed off as a portrait of the “author” of the plays - an actress who never existed.

From 1827 to 1829, Prosper Merimee published works that had enormous success with readers: “Guzla” (a collection of prose poems that Merimee presents as Illyrian songs by the never-existent storyteller Maglanovich), the historical drama “The Jacquerie,” the historical novel “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX."

The beginning of Prosper Merimee's creative career dates back to the period of intense struggle between the romantics and classicists. Mérimée becomes close to the most radical romantic writers who express opposition to the Restoration regime and oppose those who support it, i.e. classic writers.

However, Prosper Merimee soon moved away from the romantic movement. The features of realism are becoming more and more clearly evident in his work. He no longer writes novels or dramas and prefers short stories. Merimee's novella is an episode in which a specific character is revealed in certain circumstances and in a certain social environment. Prosper Merimee believed that the author must maintain the neutrality of the observer, depict things with maximum objectivity, without drawing any conclusions and hiding his own view of what is depicted. The writer must highlight the main, essential and abandon everything unnecessary and random.

Deeply dissatisfied with the surrounding reality, where true feelings are impossible and selfishness and the power of money reign, Merimee withdraws into himself and puts on the mask of an indifferent skeptic. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, with whom he was friends, wrote about him: “Sensibility formed the basis of his character. But he always wore a mask.

I am one of the few in whose presence he dropped it. He sometimes came to see me in order to rest his soul, throw off his mask, speak freely, without fear of seeming funny.”

In 1834, Prosper Merimee received the post of chief inspector of historical monuments. He travels a lot and publishes works on history and archaeology. Over the last 20 years of his life, he wrote only 3 short stories. However, during this period he was actively involved in translations, primarily of Russian literature. Mérimée translated into French and introduced France to the works of Pushkin, Gogol and Turgenev. According to one French literary critic, Prosper Mérimée "literally emigrated to Russia and settled there for a good quarter of a century." Merimee was familiar and friendly with many Russian writers, among whom were S. A. Sobolevsky, V. A. Zhukovsky, E. A. Baratynsky, M. A. Ermolov,

Prosper Merimee, whose biography and work are presented in this article, is one of the brightest short story writers of the 19th century. Thanks to his education, he was noticeably different from the French writers of his time. But the stereotypical life in the center of civilization could not seduce such an inquisitive and energetic person as Prosper Merimee was. The biography of the creator of “Carmen” contains several years spent away from his homeland. He dedicated most of his works to residents of provincial towns in Spain and France.

early years

Prosper Merimee, whose brief biography is outlined below, was not only a talented writer and playwright, but also a researcher, wrote several works on the history of antiquity, and made a significant contribution to the culture of France.

He was born at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. From his father, the future writer inherited skepticism and a love of creativity. As a child, Prosper Merimee did not think about studying literature. His brief biography records his years of study at the Faculty of Law. After graduation, he was appointed inspector of historical monuments. But if you believe the biographers, it was as a student that he realized that his real calling was philology. He studied English, Greek, Spanish. And in order to read Pushkin in the original, the French short story writer, being a fan of the poet’s work, also mastered the Russian language.

The beginning of a creative journey

How did Prosper Merimee begin his literary career? His biography, as a rule, mentions the collection of plays “Theater of Clara Gazul”, with which he supposedly began his creative path. In fact, the French classic created his first dramatic work earlier.

Prosper was barely nineteen years old when he presented a rather bold play for those times to the judgment of his colleagues and friends (among whom was Stendhal). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, French drama began to be burdened by the rigid canons of classicism. But even in such conditions, the work of the aspiring playwright seemed extremely bold and unusual to his colleagues. They approved of the play, which was written by the young Prosper Mérimée. His biography still speaks of a later literary debut. Merimee decided not to publish the work, which Stendhal liked extremely, because he considered it far from perfect.

Inspector of Historical Monuments

Thanks to this position, Prosper Merimee, whose biography tells of numerous wanderings, had the opportunity to travel a lot around the country. But he learned to enjoy provincial landscapes later, at a more mature age. And after graduating from university, Merimee published a collection of plays called “The Theater of Clara Gazul.” But he published it under a pseudonym.

Clara Gazul

How did contemporaries characterize the writer and playwright named Prosper Merimee? His biography says that among his friends this outstanding personality stood out significantly. Merimee loved not only travel and adventure, but also hoaxes. Thus, the first collection published by him was signed with a woman’s name. And on the cover there was a portrait of Merimee, but in a female form.

Iakinf Maglanovich

What else unexpected can the biography of Prosper Merimee tell? Interesting facts relate to the early periods of his life. If Merimee published his first collection under the name of a certain Clara Gazul, then on the cover of the second book one could see the pseudonym Iakinf Maglanovich. It was a collection of Illyrian ballads called “Gusli”, telling about witches, vampires and other devilry. The book caused a lot of noise in Europe, and today it is considered a clever and witty imitation of the folk poetry of the Western Slavs.

Historical literature

Later Merimee published books under his own name. He presented to the readers works on a historical theme - “The Jacquerie” and “Chronicle of the Times of Charles XIX”. And then Merimee took his fans to distant lands. The short story “Matteo Falcone” is a cruel story from Corsican life. “The Capture of the Redoubt” is a work dedicated to the steadfastness of the Russians in the war with Napoleon. And finally, “Tamango” is an indignant tale of the African slave trade.

At court

In 1830, Mérimée traveled extensively throughout his beloved Spain. Here he met the Count de Teba and his wife. Their daughter, Eugenia, later became the French Empress. From an early age, the girl had warm feelings for Merima. Therefore, over time, the writer became “one of the people” at court. By the age of forty, he was awarded the title of senator and enjoyed the full confidence of Napoleon III. Politics and career could not play a primary role in the life of Prosper Merimee, but they took up a lot of time. Perhaps that is why in ten years he wrote only three works.

George Sand

In 1844, the short story “Arsene Guillot” was published. In it, the author showed the moral superiority of a fallen woman over an aristocrat, which caused a big scandal in society. Merimee's affair with the writer also became a reason for gossip. He courted her for two years. And yet he was able to awaken feelings in the soul of an emancipated woman. But this novel had no continuation. Subsequently, Merimee claimed that his beloved’s complete lack of modesty killed all desire in him.

"Carmen"

In 1845, Mérimée's most famous work was published. “Carmen” formed the basis of the famous opera of the same name. The novella is about the passionate love of a former officer, and now a smuggler named Jose, for the cunning and cruel gypsy Carmencita. In the work, Merimee paid special attention to the morals and customs of the freedom-loving people. The girl who does not want to submit is killed by Jose. Merimee's novella has been filmed many times. According to literary scholars, the French writer was inspired by this topic after reading Pushkin’s poem “The Gypsies.” But it is worth saying that Merimee managed to create an image that is not inferior in strength to Don Quixote or Hamlet.

Last years

For the last twenty years, Merimee has created almost no works of art. He devoted himself to literary criticism. He was engaged in translations and wrote several works dedicated to Gogol and Pushkin. It is Merimee who owes French readers their acquaintance with Russian literature. In 1861, he published a journalistic work dedicated to peasant uprisings in Russia. Among other books, the theme of which touches on Russian culture: “Episode from Russian History”, “Ivan Turgenev”, “Nikolai Gogol”.

Other works

Merimee created six dramatic works and more than twenty short stories. In addition, he published several essays on travel. Novels by Prosper Merimee:

• "Federigo."
• "Backgammon game."
• "Letters from Spain".
• "Etruscan Vase".
• "Souls of Purgatory"
• "Double fault."
• "Venus of Illa".
• "Abbé Aubin."
• "Colomba".

Among the works written by Merimee for the theater are “The Enchanted Gun,” “The Discontented,” and “The Adventurer’s Debut.”

"Lokis" is the last work that Prosper Mérimée published.

Biography (death)

In 1870, in Cannes, the great French writer Prosper Merimee passed away. On his gravestone there is a plaque with the inscription: “With love and apologies. George Sand." After the writer’s death, two more of his short stories were published: “The Blue Room” and “Juman”. And five years later, the world listened with admiration to the dramatic story of the gypsy woman, embodied by Meringue in music.

French literature

Prosper Merimee

Biography

MERIMET, PROSPER (Mrime, Prosper) (1803−1870), French novelist and short story writer. Born September 28, 1803 in Paris. From his artist parents he inherited the typical 18th century style. skepticism and subtle artistic taste. The parental influence and example of Stendhal, with whom Merimee was friends and whose talent he admired, formed a style unusual for the heyday of romanticism - harshly realistic, ironic and not without a share of cynicism. Merimee was preparing for the legal profession, while seriously studying languages, archeology and history. His first work was the book The Theater of Clara Gazul (Le Thtre de Clara Gazul, 1825), passed off as the work of a certain Spanish poetess, whose plays were allegedly discovered and translated by Merimee. Next came another literary hoax - a “translation” of the Illyrian folklore Guzla (La Guzla). Both books were of great importance for the development of early Romanticism. But the most significant contribution to French literature was made by masterpieces of later times, including the Chronicle of the reign of Charles IX (La Chronique du rgne de Charles IX, 1829), the most reliable of all French historical narratives of the romantic era; the ruthlessly realistic story of Corsican life by Mateo Falcone (1829); excellent descriptive novella The Taking of the Redoubt (L"Enlvement de la redoute, 1829); an indignant story about the African slave trade Tamango (Tamango, 1829); an example of a romantic hoax, the Venus of Ille (La Vnus d'Ille, 1837); the tale of the Corsican vendetta of Colomba (Colomba, 1840); and finally Carmen (Carmen, 1845), the most famous French short story. All these works are permeated with deep pessimism; they are also characterized by the cult of feeling and decisive action, close attention to detail and the cold dispassion of the story. Mérimée died in Cannes September 23, 1870.

Prosper Merimee is a famous French writer and short story writer (1803−1870). Prosper Merimee was born on September 28, 1803 in Paris, into a family of artists. From his parents he inherited skepticism and subtle artistic taste, typical of the 18th century.

Mérimée completed a course in legal sciences in Paris and was appointed secretary of the Comte d'Artou, one of the ministers of the monarchy, and later the chief inspector of historical monuments of France. In this post, he actively contributed to the preservation of the country's historical sights. Mérimée was preparing to become a lawyer, studying foreign languages ​​in depth , as well as archeology and history.Prosper Mérimée was appointed senator in 1853. Enjoying full confidence, he enjoyed a personal friendship with Napoleon III.

Prosper Merimee's first work was the historical drama Cromwell, which he wrote at the age of twenty. However, the drama was never published, since Merimee was not happy with this work. In 1825, the writer published several dramatic plays, combining them into a book: “The Theater of Clara Gasul.”