Prosper Merimee

The Plays of Clara Gazul, a Spanish Comedian: with Memoirs of Her Life (1825) Prosper Merimee

Brief Description: This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Contributor Bio:  Merimee, Prosper Prosper Merimee was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen. Merimee loved mysticism, history, and the unusual, and may have been influenced by Charles Nodier (though he did not appreciate his works), the historical fiction popularised by Sir Walter Scott and the cruelty and psychological drama of Aleksandr Pushkin. Many of his stories are mysteries set in foreign places, Spain and Russia being popular sources of inspiration. In 1834, Merimee was appointed to the post of inspector-general of historical monuments. He was a born archaeologist, combining linguistic faculty of a very unusual kind with accurate scholarship, with remarkable historical appreciation, and with a sincere love for the arts of design and construction, in the former of which he had some practical skill. In his official capacity he published numerous reports, some of which, with other similar pieces, have been republished in his works. He was also responsible for several translations of Pushkin and Gogol, when they weren't known in Europe yet.