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Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870) | |
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French dramatist, master of short story, and historian, who had an office as a state archeologist. Mérimée's most famous work is the novella CARMEN (1845), a story about jealousy and unfaithfulness. It inspired George Bizet's world famous Opéra-Comique version from 1875. Some 50 movie adaptations have been made from the story, several of which are filmings of the opera. Along with Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Vigny, Musset, Gautier, and George Sand, Mérimée was one of the greatest names of the romantic movement in France. Passionate, destructive love was Mérimée's subject in many of his short stories, among them the symbolic 'The Pearl of Toledo'. "Who can say whether the sun is most beautiful at dawn or at dusk? Who can tell whether the olive tree or the almond is the more beautiful? Who can tell whether Andalusia or Valencia breeds the bravest knight? What man can say who is the fairest of women? But I will tell you who is the fairest. She is Aurora de Vega, the Pearl of Toledo." In the story the Moorish and Christian world fight about a woman. Swarthy Suzani challenges Don Guttiera to meet him in single combat about the Pearl of Toledo. "As mine I will bear her away, or by Allah, Cordova shall see me no more." Don Guttiera stops his game of chess and goes for the game of lances. She rides after him and finds Suzani laying badly wounded near the fountain of Almami. She is willing to help him when he begs her to take the lance from his chest. She trustingly approaches Suzani, but he kills her with his saber. Prosper Mérimée was born in Paris, the son of Léonor Mérimée, an artist, and Anne Mérimée. He received law degree from the University of Paris in 1823, but he also studied Greek, Spanish, English, and Russian languages and their literature. Between 1826 and 1868 Mérimée made eighteen trips to England. Due to his interest in the Slavs, Mérimée set out on a journey to the East. Because travelling was very difficult and costly at that time, he decided to describe the journey first in his book and then spent his royalties in verifying the accuracy of his observations. The work, LA GUZLA (1827, Gusli), was a great success. In 1830 he visited Spain, which became one of his principal literary sources. After a career under the ministries of navy, commerce, and the interior, he was appointed in 1833 inspector-general of historical remains in France. Mérimée wrote his first play, CROMWELL (1822), at the age of 19. LE THÉÂTRE DE CLARA GAZUL (1825, 1830) were plays which he passed off as having been written by a Spanish actress, Clara Gazul. Gusli was another literary practical joke, alleged to be translations of "Illyrian" national songs. A.S. Pushkin translated the book into Russian, but Goethe was suspicious of its authenticity. Mérimée's historical play, Peasant Revolt (1828), and the novel CHRONIQUE DU RÈGNE DE CHARLES IX (1929, A Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX), was born in the vogue of historical fiction established by Sir Walter Scott. Mérimée admired Alexandr Puskin and was among the first westerners who acknowledged the greatness of his poetry. He also traveled widely in eastern Europe and Russia, and was the first interpreter of Russian literature in France. It is possible that Pushkin may have read Mérimée's tales. "Comme il insiste peu!" said Mérimée of Pushkin's light touch. In 1831 Mérimée started a long correspondence with a young girl Jenny Dacquin, which was published as LETTRES Á UNE INCONNUE (1873). When the daughter of his friend, Countess of Montijo, became empress Eugénie of France, Merimée was admitted to the royal circle and made a senator in 1853. His friends included Stendhal and Turgenev. Goncourt brothers disliked him, Thomas Carlyle descibed him as "smooth but utterly barren man", and Victor Hugo criticized his political loyalties. "As soon as you saw him, you sensed in him a chilliness," wrote Hippolyte Taine of Mérimée. "Especially on ceremonial occasions his features were quite impassive. Even in private, when he was telling some ridiculous story, his voice remained monotonous, utterly calm, without brilliance or vivacity..." On the other hand, the Russian writer Turgenev saw, that "behind the external show of indifference and coldness, he concealed the most affectionate of hearts..." "'Ha! ha! you're jealous!' she retorted, 'so much the worse for you. How can you be such a fool as that? Don't you see I must love you, because I have never asked you for money?'" (from Carmen) Carmen, a novella about Spanish Gypsy life, first published serially in La Revue des Deux Mondes in 1845, and two years lated in book form. The work was not an immediate success, but considered in its time immoral. Carmen, inspired by Manon Lescaut (1731), Abbé Prévost's tale about amor fou, is a story within a story. Much of its Gypsy lore was derived from the work of George Borrow, but in A Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX Mérimée had also a Gypsy character, named Mila. The narrator first tells how he befriended the bandit Don José. "I had no doubt that the man I was dealing with was a smuggler, or perhaps a robber. But what odds was it to me? I knew the Spanish character well enough to be quite certain that I had nothing to fear from a man who had shared food and tobacco with me. His very presence was a guarantee of protection, should we run into any troubles." Later Don José rescues the narrator, who has met the dangerous gypsy of the title. Months later Don José is arrested and sentenced to death. He tells the narrator that as a corporal in the Spanish cavalry, he was ordered to arrest Carmen, a flirtatious Gypsy woman, for assaulting a coworker. José, who fells in love with Carmen, allows her to escape. He deserts the army, and takes up a life as a robber in the mountains of Andalusia. The smuggling band also includes Carmen's husband, Garcia de Borgone, whom José kills. Unfaithful Carmen becomes interested in Lucas, a picador and makes José insanely jealous. When she refuses to change, he kills her with a knife - she doesn't attempt to flee. The murder has no witnesses, José buries the body, and surrenders himself to the authorities. The last chapter of the novella deals with bohemian customs and language and was added in 1847 to the novella. Georges Bizet's (1838-75) opera based on the story is considered the composer's greatest achievement. However, it had a disastrous reception and the failure hastened his early death. Among its hit tunes are 'Toreador's Song', the 'Habanera', the 'Seguidilla', the 'Card Song', the 'Urchins' Choru's, and the 'Flower Song'. Mérimée's disreputable friends included Count Libri, Guglielmo Bruto Icilio Timoleone, one of the most accomplished book thieves of all time. Libri was forced to escape with his wife to England, but a host of politicians, artists and writers defended him against accusations. In 1848 Mérimée wrote that "for me, who has always said that the love of collecting leads people to crime, Libri is the most honest of collectors, and I know of no man except Libri who would return to the libraries the books that others have stolen." Two years after Libri had been found guilty, Mérimée published in La Revue des Deux Mondes such a loud defence of his friend that the courts ordered him to appear before them, accused of contempt. Mérimée also wrote novels and short stories, archaeological and historical dissertations, and travel books. COLOMBA (1840) was a story of revenge, LA VENUS D'ILLE (1837) and LOKIS, written in 1869, had fantastic elements. Mérimée died in Cannes on September 23, 1870. Three years later Bizet finished his opera based on the story. Its rehearsals were constantly delayed, partly because the theatre's management were nervous of an opera in which the heroine dies. Members of the chorus decided that their part was physically impossible because they had to move and act as well as sing. Carmen opened on March 3, 1875. The first performance was a catastrophe – the audience expected to see a comic opera. Bizet's adversities did not stop on the second night when the audience was enthusiastic, but the reviews were bad. The play staggered on for 48 performances, but never had a full house. However, in Vienna and elsewhere it was well received. For further reading: Merimée et son temps by P. Leon (1962); The Poetics of Merimée by R.C. Dale (1966); Prosper Merimée by Maxwell A. Smith (1974); Pushkin and Merimee as Short Story Writers by Karl-Heinz Barsch (1983); Prosper Merimée by George H. Yu (1992); The Fate of Carmen by Evlyn Gould (1996) - Stories about jealousy, passion and unfaithfulness: Shakespeare's Othello (Othello kills Desdemona), Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely (Venda kills Moose Malloy). - Carmen Jones (1954), film dir. by Otto Preminger, screenplay by Harry Kleiner. Based on a musical comedy by Oscar Hammerstein II, taken from a comic opera by Meilhac and Halévy, based on a novel by Prosper Mérimée and produced on Broadway by Billie Rose. Players: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Olga James, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll. Singin voices: Le Vern Hutcherson, Marilynn Horne, Marvin Hayes, Bernice Patterson, Brock Peters, Joe Crawford. - Story: Cindy Lou, visiting a parachuter factory, discovers that Carmen Jones, one of the factory girls, is after his fiancé Joe, who is going to a flying school to train as a pilot. Carmen becomes involved in a fight and Joe is obliged to escort her to Masonville jail. She persuades him to let her go and seduces him. Then she escapes and Joe is sent to prison for negligence. When he comes out of jail they are reunited. Joe follows her to Chicago. Carmen becomes bored. They quarrel and she finds solace with a boxer she knwe before. Joe, desperate and jealous, strangles her. - See also: George Sand. Selected works:
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