C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870)
Mérimée, Prosper (mā-rē-mā’). A celebrated French essayist and littérateur; born at Paris, Sept. 28, 1803; died at Cannes, Sept. 23, 1870. His best-known works were the two novels ‘Colomba’ (1830), treating of the Corsican vendetta; and ‘Carmen’ (1840), which furnished the plot of Bizet’s opera of the same name. He wrote besides: ‘Plays of Clara Gazul’ (1825); ‘Historic Monuments’ (1843); ‘Historic and Literary Medleys’ (1855), a collection of comedies in the style of the Spanish “intermezzo”; ‘Guzla’ (1827), a collection of Illyrian lyrics; ‘Mateo Falcone,’ a novel; ‘Letters to an Unknown’ (‘Lettres à Une Inconnue’: 1873); etc. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).