Prosper Mérimée

Prosper Mérimée was born in Paris in September 1803, the son of a painter. He took a law degree and began with two literary hoaxes: a body of plays presented as translated from the Spanish, then supposed Illyrian poems, which he had invented himself. Appointed inspector general of historic monuments, he travelled the provinces to catalogue and defend them. A translator of Pushkin, elected to the Académie française in 1844, a senator in 1853 and a regular at the imperial court, he died at Cannes in 1870.

In the catalogue 1

• Short storiesThe Venus of IlleLa Vénus d'IlleProsper Mérimée · 1837LiteraturePublic domain