Chapter 18

HOW THE REDOUBT WAS TAKEN

HOW THE REDOUBT WAS TAKEN

BY PROSPER MÉRIMÉE

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Prosper Mérimée, novelist, historian, dramatist, and critic, was born in Paris in 1803. Rarely gifted and highly educated, he held various offices in the civil service, was an Academician, and in 1853 a Senator of the Empire. He was a great traveler, and through his tact and engaging personality was welcomed among all classes, observing wherever he went, and gathering material for his stories, in which a great variety of types are noticeable. His literary style—clear, simple, artistic—is considered a model of restraint and conciseness. “Carmen,” on which Bizet’s opera is founded, and the novel, “Columba,” are probably the best known of his works. The latter part of his life he devoted to introducing through his own translation the great Russian authors, Poushkin, Gogol, and Turgenev. The famous “Lettres à une Inconnue” were published after his death at Cannes, in 1870, where they have lately erected a monument to him.

Prosper Mérimée, novelist, historian, dramatist, and critic, was born in Paris in 1803. Rarely gifted and highly educated, he held various offices in the civil service, was an Academician, and in 1853 a Senator of the Empire. He was a great traveler, and through his tact and engaging personality was welcomed among all classes, observing wherever he went, and gathering material for his stories, in which a great variety of types are noticeable. His literary style—clear, simple, artistic—is considered a model of restraint and conciseness. “Carmen,” on which Bizet’s opera is founded, and the novel, “Columba,” are probably the best known of his works. The latter part of his life he devoted to introducing through his own translation the great Russian authors, Poushkin, Gogol, and Turgenev. The famous “Lettres à une Inconnue” were published after his death at Cannes, in 1870, where they have lately erected a monument to him.

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