Mérimée
| Prosper Mérimée | |
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| Born |
28 September 1803 Paris, France |
| Died | 23 September 1870 (aged 66) Cannes, France |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Notable works | La Vénus d'Ille (1837), Carmen (1845) |
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Prosper Mérimée (28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was an important French writer in the school of romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and an important figure in the history of architectural preservation. He is best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen. He learned Russian and translated the work of several important Russian writers, including Pushkin and Gogol, into French. From 1830 until 1860 he was the inspector of French historical monuments, and was responsible for the protection of many historic sites, including the medieval citadel of Carcassonne, and the restoration of the facade of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. Along with the writer George Sand, he discovered the series of tapestries The Lady and the Unicorn, and arranged for their preservation. He was instrumental in the creation of Musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, where the tapestries now are displayed. The official data base of French monuments, the Base Mérimée, bears his name.
Prosper Mérimée was born in Paris on September 28, 1803, early in the Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. His father Léonor was a painter who became professor of design at the École polytechnique, and was engaged in a study of the chemistry of oil paints. In 1807 his father was named of Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. His mother Anne was twenty-nine when he was born, and was also a painter. His father's sister, Augustine, was the mother of the physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel and the orientalist Fulgence Fresnel. At the age of seven, Prosper was enrolled in the Lycée Napoléon, which after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 became the Lycée Henri-IV. His classmates and friends were the children of the elite of Restoration France, including Adrien Jussieu, son of famous botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, and Jean-Jacques Ampère, son of André-Marie Ampère, famous for his research in physics and electrodynamics. Both his parents spoke English well, traveled frequently to England and entertained many British guests. By the age of fifteen he was fluent in English. He had a talent for foreign languages, and besides English mastered classical Greek and Latin. Later in life he became fluent in Spanish, and could passably speak Serbian and Russian. In school he also had a strong interest in history, and was fascinated by magic and the supernatural, which later became important elements in many of his stories.
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