In the general mainstream of the literary movement of the 19th century. there are many transitional, ambiguous phenomena, developing on the edge of literary trends and combining heterogeneous qualities; such original creative individuals arise that it is difficult to classify them with certainty and beyond doubt. Among those who “resist” a rigid, unambiguous classification is, in particular, P. Merimee.

Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) was brought up in an atmosphere of freethinking, adopted from the 18th century, and the cult of art that reigned in the family.

His literary activity begins with the translation of “The Poems of Ossian” by J. Macpherson, two years later he writes his first work - the drama “Cromwell” (1822) and then “The Theater of Clara Gasoul” (1825), which became one of the earliest attempts to update the French dramaturgy in the era of romanticism.

"The Theater of Clara Gasul" was written and published as a hoax: the authorship of the plays was attributed to the fictional Spanish comedian Clara Gasul. The biography of Clara Gasoul, which introduced her works on behalf of the translator Joseph l'Estrange, is also a figment of Mérimée's imagination, like Joseph l'Estrange himself. The book was decorated with a portrait of Clara Gasoul, written by E. Delecluse, who gave the “Spanish comedian” features of resemblance to Merimee. It is fundamentally important that the author uses the Spanish “mask”: the traditions of dramaturgy of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon seem to him the most productive for creating a new, modern drama.

The Clara Gasoul Theater includes eight plays; Three of them are more or less related in content to historical events (“Spaniards in Denmark” and the “Ines Mendo” duology), and the rest are written on fictional subjects.

“The Spaniards in Denmark,” which combines elements of historical tragedy and melodrama, essentially affirms a new type of drama in French art. In the subtitle, the author called his work “a comedy in three days,” explaining (in the commentary to the play “Devil Woman”) that he uses the word “comedy”, following Clara Gasul and the ancient Spanish poets, in an expansive sense: it means any dramatic work. Merimee divides his play not into five acts, as required by the French classicist tradition, but into three, and not into acts, but into days; according to Spanish custom, he does not care about observing the classicist unities of place and time. He also calls other plays of the “Clara Gasul Theater” comedies, and “The Carriage of the Holy Sacrament” - sainet (a genre of Spanish drama). All plays are preceded by epigraphs from Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Calderon and are accompanied by author's comments explaining some historical facts, Spanish realities, words, customs, etc.

Perhaps the most expressive device in Mérimée's plays was the actors' famous addresses to the public. For example, “Heaven and Hell” ends with a character saying, “So ends this comedy. Don’t judge the author strictly.” And in the comedy “Ines Mendo, or the Triumph of Prejudice,” Ines, who has just died during the course of the plot, stands up with the words: “The author asked me to resurrect in order to ask the public for mercy. You can leave with the pleasant knowledge that there will be no third part.”

By the hero’s address to the public, something comedic is introduced into a tragic situation; the high and the trivial, the solemn and the everyday, the everyday, which gravitates towards the low, are easily equalized in their rights. Finally, the author's irony of the stylist and the hoaxer finds its expression here.

Contemporaries perceived the Clara Gasul Theater as an innovative work. The liberal newspaper Globe compares it with the novels of Walter Scott, which “made a revolution in the entire epic field of our literature... The author of “The Clara Hasul Theater” completes this revolution....” Such an assessment is justified, since, indeed, with her plays Merimee affirms a new type of drama - romantic. Before the main manifesto of romantic art in France appeared - Hugo's preface to the drama "Cromwell" (1827), Mérimée implements the most important principles that will be formulated in this manifesto: depicting the events and heroes of modern history, not antiquity, recreating the spirit of the era or " local color", freedom from the tyranny of "high style" in drama, the use of a more lively language, closer to colloquial, rejection of such conventions as the unity of place and time.

Merimee's next work is also a hoax: the book “Gyuzla, or Collection of Illyrian songs recorded in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovina” (1827). It includes 29 ballads written by Merimee himself, and only one, “The Sad Ballad of the Noble Wife Asan-Aga,” is a translation of a Serbian folk song. Even such sophisticated Slavic readers as A. Mitskevich and A. S. Pushkin believed the hoax. Mickiewicz translates the ballad “Morlak in Venice”, and Pushkin includes in his “Songs of the Western Slavs” (1835) a translation of 11 ballads by Merimee (“Bonaparte and the Montenegrins”, “Horse”, “Ghoul”, etc.), and also translates Merimee’s composition biography of Iakinf Maglajović - Serbian poet and guslar, fictional songwriter. Goethe turned out to be more insightful: he highly appreciated the stylizing skill of the author of the book “Güzla”. Noting Mérimée’s “wonderful, bright talent,” Goethe saw in him a “true romantic.”

After his “serious joke” with Slavic songs, Merimee returns to the genre of drama and to the search for ways to update it. He was fascinated by chronicle drama books, and in 1828 he wrote a play in this genre, “The Jacquerie, Scenes of Feudal Times.” According to the author's plan, set out in the preface, the drama combines two principles: the epic (depiction of a peasant rebellion caused by the “excesses of the feudal system”) and the moral descriptive (“I tried to give an idea of ​​the cruel morals of the fourteenth century and I think that I softened rather than thickened colors of my painting").

Jacquerie - peasant movement, rebellion of Jacques (Jacques is a common name). Among the characters in the play are lords and knights, but there are much more peasants, monks, townspeople, free shooters, robbers and other people of different classes. This creates a broad epic panorama of the popular movement, presented in 36 scenes, rather than in the traditional five acts of French drama. Some elements of the new form, such as the abundance of characters, frequent changes of paintings and scenery, lack of unity of place and time, etc., made the play almost unsuitable for stage execution. But for Merimee, at the time of writing “The Jacquerie,” something else was important - to recreate in a dramatic work a specific era in the life of the people, its historical spirit and “local flavor.”

At the same time, against the backdrop of the “mass hero”, the characters of the main characters are individualized quite clearly: this is the monk Brother Jean, the man-at-arms Pierre, the leader of the robbers Werewolf. The combination of long and close-up shots in the play is a serious achievement of the author and evidence of the evolution that romantic drama undergoes already in the process of its formation.

Late 1820s marked in Mérimée's work by a passion for history characteristic of romanticism. Following “The Jacquerie,” he writes the historical novel “Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX” (1829).

In the preface to the novel, the author says: “In history, I love only anecdotes, but among anecdotes I prefer those that contain, as it seems to me, a true picture of the morals and characters of a given era.” In an effort to immerse himself in history at the level of morals, the novelist prefers unknown, fictional characters as the main characters of the historical narrative. Such are Georges and Bernard de Mergy.

Historical events and characters are also present in the novel; they decisively determine the fate of the fictional characters and their private lives. As the central historical episode, Merimee chose the tragedy of the beating of French Protestants (Huguenots) by Catholics in 1572 on the night of St. Bartholomew. The traditional interpretation of the events of St. Bartholomew's Night in French historiography boiled down to the accusation of Catholics led by the Duke of Guise and the king's mother Catherine de' Medici, who actually ruled the country when her son Charles IX reigned. All these historical characters appear in Merimee’s novel, but the writer’s ideas about the causes of the tragedy differ from traditional ones. The main reason is not the evil will of the rulers, but the religious intolerance and fanaticism that has gripped the entire nation, Merimee believes. The confrontation between Catholics and Huguenots turned into a national disaster, a civil war. Every Catholic considered it valor to kill a Protestant, and Protestants did the same to Catholics. Georges and Bernard de Mergy are involved in this fratricidal madness, which ends in fratricide for them in the literal sense of the word: Georges dies at the hands of Bernard.

Thus, the fate of the de Mergy brothers is determined by the general atmosphere of fanatical religious confrontation that marked the 16th century. Both of them embody the historical psychology of a nation in the era of religious wars.

In accordance with the poetics of the romantic historical novel, the events of the distant past are interpreted by Merimee in relation to modern life. The writer draws attention to this in the preface to the novel. The problem of civil clashes on religious grounds was relevant in the late 1820s, and a reminder of St. Bartholomew’s Night could serve as a “history lesson” quite appropriate in these circumstances.

Comparisons of history and modern life do not always lead Merimee to conclusions in favor of the latter. So, reflecting on the characteristics of the 16th century. ideas about honor, crime, courage, he notes “how energetic passions have degenerated in our days.” This motif will very soon be developed in his short stories about modern man; in the historical novel, the emphasis remains on the depiction of the morals of the 16th century. and their corresponding characters, marked by dynamism, activity, physical strength and valor, unfettered by long thoughts or doubts. The heroes of “Chronicles” manifest themselves in action, in actions, which decisively determines the dynamics of the development of the novel’s plot. Merimee does not linger on lengthy descriptions; he gives only the most necessary preliminary information about the characters and the scene of action and, as quickly as possible, provides the reader with the opportunity to observe “scenes” in which their actions, and not the author’s reasoning, speak eloquently about the characters. This creates the effect of rapidly developing action, “cleansed” of the traditional lengths of a historical novel.

In the compositional openness of the “Chronicle”, in the incompleteness of the love line of Bernard de Mergy and Diana, another fundamentally important moment for Merimee in the structural organization of the work is revealed: by combining the epic, lyrical and dramatic principles in a “synthetic” (in the spirit of W. Scott) novel, the writer gives the dominant role of the epic plot (the events of St. Bartholomew's Night), therefore, when the latter seems exhausted to him, he finds it possible to leave the lyrical plot without a logical conclusion: “Was Merzhi consoled? Did Diana take another lover? I leave it to the reader to decide, who will thus be able to finish the novel according to his own taste.”

1820s for Merimee are unusually fruitful. Following drama, poetic stylization and the novel, he turns to the short story, which will remain his favorite genre to the end. And although the number of short stories written by Merimee is small (there are about two dozen), they represent a significant and striking phenomenon in the history of French literature.

Merimee wrote her first short stories in 1829, the last ones date back to the 1860s. They are published as they are written, and only the first author publishes them in a separate collection, “Mosaic” (1833). Already the title reflects the heterogeneity, diversity of origins and themes of the works that make up the book. Here are morally descriptive essays entitled “Letters from Spain”, and imitations of a Spanish plot (“The Pearl of Toledo”), a Swedish legend (“The Vision of Charles XI”) or a medieval Neapolitan tale (“Federigo”), and a story about a slave riot on a slave trader’s ship (“Tamango”), and Corsican history (“Mateo Falcone”), and an episode from military life (“The Taking of the Redoubt”), and short stories about the morals of the Parisian “society” (“Etruscan Vase”, “Backgammon Party”) , and a small play “The Discontented”.

Already in “Mosaic” Merimee’s talent as a short story writer is evident, and his stories can be considered among the best examples of this genre. Such, for example, is the short story “The Capture of the Redoubt,” recorded, as the author reports, from the words of a friend-officer recalling his first battle. This was the capture of the Shevardinsky redoubt in Russia in 1812.

Merimee's skill is fully demonstrated here. Within the very limited space of a short story, he manages to accurately depict the battle, the general spirit of the imperial guard, and the psychological state of an inexperienced young man who found himself on the battlefield for the first time.

“Mosaic” consists largely of plots that grew out of Merimee’s romantic interests in the 1820s, his passion for “local color,” legends of different nations, and folklore. But now he strives not so much for stylization, as before, but for the creation of original works in the spirit of new trends in literature.

Each of the short stories is interesting not only for its national roots, but also for its sound that is relevant to Merimee’s time. Thus, for example, Tamango is a convincing expression of the principles of romantic historiography of the 1820s. and the ideas of political liberalism, with which Mérimée sympathized. In the novella one can hear a replica of the Rousseauian theory of “natural man”, characteristic of romanticism, as well as an expression of the concept of the progress of civilization and Merimee’s ideas about freedom in their correlation with the contemporary ideas of abolitionism. A kind of poles, within which all these problems are built in their interconnection, are the images of the “savage” Tamango and the “civilized” European, the slave trader Captain Ledoux. The slave rebellion and its tragic consequences not only for the white crew of the ship, but also for the black slaves themselves, including Tamango, are symbolic. Having killed their master and sailors, they remain slaves of their savagery and ignorance: their inability to control the ship dooms them to death (only Tamango remains alive, but is doomed to a miserable existence). Merimee considers true freedom to be the result of a long historical journey of the people and their gradual introduction to civilization. It is not enough to proclaim freedom; one must “grow up” to it, climbing the steps of progress.

“Mateo Falcone” embodies the theme of the Corsican national character, in the 1810-1820s. especially attractive because Corsica is the birthplace of Napoleon. Corsica was a special world, although territorially close to Europe, but completely different from it in everything related to morals, ideas about honor and duty, justice and courage. Of course, Merimee does not at all consider Mateo Falcone’s reprisal against his son worthy of imitation. The act of the Corsican, terrifying a civilized person with its cruelty, requires not justification, but explanation as an example of the harsh morals of the Corsicans, who still retained “natural” passions, integrity of character and uncompromising morality, while Europeans, at the cost of losing all this, joined progress. The Corsican “local color” thus makes one remember the nature of the surrounding civilized life.

Most of Merimee’s short stories correspond to the traditions of “local color” to one degree or another. After “Mosaic”, he wrote the stories “The Souls of Purgatory” (1834), “Colomba” (1840), “Carmen” (1845), “The Lane of Madame Lucretia” (1846), and later “Juman” (1868) and “Lokis” "(1869). These works depict rights and characters that are unusual compared to those that could be observed in contemporary Mérimée Parisian society. Even the life of the inhabitants of the small town of Illa and its environs (“Venus of Illskaya”, 1837) is marked by a special “local color”, which is determined by the prevailing prejudices, preconceptions, and legends. The fantastic is closely intertwined with the real lives of people, which allows the author to masterfully link the motives of a supernatural incident and a trivial crime, thereby giving the plot extraordinary poignancy and entertainment. The writer considered “Venus of Illa” to be his best short story.

Since 1834, he has served as the chief inspector of historical monuments of France, in this capacity he travels a lot throughout the country and abroad (to Spain, England, Italy, Corsica, Asia Minor) and writes books about his travels (“Notes on a trip to south of France", 1835; "Notes on a trip to the west of France", 1835; "Notes on a trip to Corsica", 1840), as well as works of historical content ("Essays on Roman history", 1844; "History of Don Pedro I, King of Castile ", 1848; "Historical and literary essays", 1855).

In 1845, Merimee published another work marked by the spirit of “local color” - the story “Carmen”. “Carmen” became perhaps Mérimée’s most famous work (which was largely facilitated by J. Bizet’s opera of the same name, created in 1874). It is characteristic that in “Carmen” the writer again turns to a theme that has already been heard in his work. The theme of irresistible love was embodied in the one-act comedy “Devil Woman” from the Clara Gasul Theater. In Carmen, driven by blind love, José becomes a deserter, a smuggler, a thief, a murderer, and is ultimately sentenced to death. But the plot, built like the story of Jose, centers around the Andalusian gypsy Carmen. Her character has absorbed all the gypsy customs, concepts of love, freedom and a decent way of life, gypsy ideas of patriotism, understood as loyalty to their fellow tribesmen (the flip side of their patriotism is “sincere contempt for the people who show them hospitality”).

One can hardly talk about Merimee’s poeticization of the “exotic” character of Carmen. She is deceitful, treacherous, merciless; deception and theft are as natural to her as wanderings and bewitching dances; her love is not only free, but also primitive. It is no coincidence that the epigraph to the story is the following lines: “Every woman is evil; but she is good twice: either on the bed of love, or on her deathbed.” The author, who acts in the story as a narrator-traveler studying the customs of the Spanish gypsies, believes that the character of the heroine is predetermined by the traditions of her people, and sympathizes with the unfortunate Jose, who became a criminal and is doomed to death because of his love for Carmen. “This is Kales (that’s what the gypsies call themselves. - Merimee's note)“We are guilty of raising her this way,” Jose concludes his dying confession. And as if continuing and confirming this idea, Merimee ends the story with a chapter that is, in essence, a short treatise on the Spanish gypsies. Explaining the character of Carmen, he strives to give readers a “favorable idea” not of Carmen herself, but of “his research in the field of Romany” (i.e., gypsy morals).

Thus, the sympathy and admiration of the romantics, traditionally accompanying the idea of ​​free, natural feeling, in Merimee’s short story clearly retreats before the objective analytical principle inherent in the realistic method. The writer generously brings his own ethnographic interests and knowledge into the story; The author's comments accompanying the text are replete with information about Gypsy customs, explanations of Gypsy words, sayings, etc. At the same time, any elements of conventional decorativeness, external efficiency, admiration of exotic materials and any pathos remain “behind the scenes” of the work. “Local flavor” here takes on a distinctly different quality than the romantic one. The same is evident in the late short story “Lokis” (1869), which completes the “exotic” line, which remains a constant and, perhaps, the most stable leitmotif of Mérimée’s entire short story.

If in “exotic” short stories the writer only sometimes and indirectly touches on the problems of modern French society, then he turns to a direct depiction of this society in the short stories “Backgammon Party” and “The Etruscan Vase” (both 1830), while remaining within the framework of “high society » themes that corresponded to the tradition of romantic French literature of the 1820s. His heroes - Saint-Clair ("The Etruscan Vase") and Captain Roger ("Backgammon Party") - are representatives of the "society" and at the same time clearly stand out from the background of the people of their circle. They are “better”, more subtle mentally, honest, thinking and already because of this they feel alone in their environment. In accordance with an observation made during the work on the Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX, Merimee portrays modern man as reflective, depressed by doubts in the spirit of the romantic “disease of the century.” Saint Clair experiences a drama of jealousy; Roger is tormented by remorse - having cheated in a card game, he provoked the suicide of his partner. But neither one nor the other can do anything that would help their self-affirmation and victory over circumstances. Although the story of each of them is different from the other, the ending in both cases is the death of the hero. Saint-Clair is killed in a duel, and Roger goes into the army under enemy bullets in order to accept death as punishment for a dishonorable act.

Maintaining the narrative in a laconic, somewhat detached manner, Merimee avoids direct authorial judgments, and the more expressive become the finely found detail, the touch noticed by the author and telling a lot to the reader. Such details include, for example, at the end of “The Etruscan Vase,” a broken pistol thrown away after a fatal shot, and the careless words of a second, annoyed that it is unlikely to be repaired. Not a word about the man who was just killed. This scene is permeated with bitter irony, caused by the feeling of the meaninglessness of the hero’s noble, honest challenge to his alleged offender, and regret for a life ruined for an insignificant reason. The irony, introduced with delicate, barely noticeable touches, reveals a striking feature of Merimee’s individual style. The author's irony often “encodes” an assessment of the hero, his actions or the entire situation, which dictates certain behavior for the characters.

The skill of an insightful psychologist and storyteller is on full display in Double Wrong. In this story, other features of the creative style of Merimee the narrator are clearly manifested. The author's speech is skillfully combined with the dialogue of the characters; in the author's speech itself, the main role belongs to the dynamic narrative, and the description is extremely laconic. A well-found detail, a characteristic touch, is highly expressive.

In parallel with the “high society” story, Merimee creates two short stories that go beyond this topic: “Arsene Guillot” (1845) and “Abbé Aubin” (1846). Here themes appear that are more or less close to the social motives characteristic of the literature of the 1840s, and not only realistic, but also romantic (Hugo, George Sand, E. Sue). Despite their expressiveness, these two short stories, even in combination with others, remain something like scattered sketches for a painting; they could become truthful fragments of the panorama of life in modern society, but the writer does not create such a panorama and hardly intended such a thing.

In the short stories of the 1860s. “The Blue Room”, “Juman”, “Lokis” Merimee once again proves himself to be a master of a sharp, entertaining and even mysterious plot.

Novels became the highest achievement of Merimee's artistic creativity. The short stories showed the psychological skill of the writer, his ability to express a lot through a subtly noticed detail that fits organically into an emotionally restrained narrative.

The absence of descriptive and lyrical excesses, as well as the irony of Merimee’s narrative style, sometimes give rise to talk about realism as a writer’s creative method. However, the method of storytelling itself, the structure and techniques of which are associated with “realistic” writing, does not yet create a realistic artistic consciousness in the comprehensive sense of this concept. In addition, the type of author’s speech, free from emotional tension, is not a monopoly of realism; it can also be found among the romantics (for example, in Vigny’s short stories). Realism as an artistic consciousness and a method of creativity presupposes a systematic analytical study of the reality with which the artist comes into contact, the study of society and the psychology of modern man in the diverse interrelations of all elements of this reality, considered as a kind of unity, as a system. This is how Balzac understood the task of the writer, who called himself a “secretary” and “historian” of modern society. In Merimee, we find only separate, rather scattered, although very truthful and marked by subtle psychologism, sketches of this reality.

The critical orientation of Merimee’s irony also speaks not of a divergence, but of a kinship with the romantics, for whom the “disease of the century” arose precisely on the basis of a sharply critical perception of reality.

In general, Merimee’s short stories are moving towards realism, but this movement is in line with romantic traditions, and the elements of a new, realistic orientation do not yet create in his creative practice that complex of characteristics, the totality of which would allow the writer to be unconditionally considered a realist. This circumstance in no way detracts from the importance of Merimee’s work in general and his short stories in particular. Merimee's short stories occupy one of the most significant places in the history of this genre in the 19th century.

The character of the last two decades of Merimee’s life is determined to a large extent by the strong position in society and solid authority that he gained through his creativity, administrative service and scientific works. Merimee becomes an academician (1844) of the Second Empire, moreover, a person close to the imperial family (the writer had long been acquainted and friendly with Eugenia Montijo, who became the wife of Emperor Napoleon III in 1853). However, he not only enjoys the fruits of a prosperous life, but also continues his creative activity, mainly in two directions: he does not abandon the genres of short stories and drama that he had previously mastered, and at the same time he is interested in studying Russian history and the Russian language, as well as translations. He creates the satirical comedy “Two Inheritances” (1850) and works on the drama “The First Steps of an Adventurer” (1852). This work, which remained unfinished, represents scenes from the Russian history of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century. and dedicated to the impostor False Dmitry. The figure of the latter and the history of imposture in Russia in general attracts Merimee’s special attention. So, in 1853 he wrote the essay “False Dmitry - an episode of Russian history.” A little later, the writer turns to the history of popular movements (“Cossacks of Ukraine”, 1855; “Razin’s Uprising”, 1861; “Cossacks of Bygone Times”, 1863). His attention is also drawn to the era of Peter I.

Delving deeper into the history of Russia, Merimee feels the need to turn to Russian literature. Interest in the national identity and culture of different peoples has always been characteristic of him, and Russian writers were among the writer’s friends since the 1820s, and through them he could know about certain moments of literary life in Russia. The episode with Pushkin’s “Songs of the Western Slavs,” of course, could not leave Merimee indifferent. Over time, A. S. Pushkin became his favorite Russian writer, and he gave particular preference to “The Gypsies.” Merimee translates this poem (in prose), a number of poems by Pushkin, “The Queen of Spades” and “The Shot”. He also owns translations from Gogol (“The Inspector General”) and Turgenev (from “Notes of a Hunter”). In 1868, Merimee wrote a detailed article “Alexander Pushkin”, in which, contrary to the then widespread opinion about Byron’s decisive influence on Pushkin’s work, he emphasized the idea of ​​​​the originality of the Russian poet’s talent. The article also contains interesting critical judgments about the tragedy of 11ushkin “Boris Godunov”. Merimee’s essay “Ivan Turgenev” also dates back to 1868. Merimee had known Turgenev since 1857; The writers jointly prepared a prose translation of M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri”. A number of Merimee’s articles are devoted to the works of Turgenev (the novels “Fathers and Sons”, “Smoke”, as well as “Notes of a Hunter”, etc.).

I. S. Turgenev also spoke about the significance of what Mérimée did to introduce French readers to Russian literature: “We, Russians, are obliged to honor in him a man who had a sincere and heartfelt affection for our Russian people, for our language, for throughout our everyday life - a man who positively revered Pushkin and deeply and truly appreciated the beauty of his poetry.”

The “Russian” page of Merimee’s work is another touch to the portrait of the French writer, who was a bright creative individual. With his unique “handwriting” he differs from many of his contemporary romantics, but does not oppose them. Romantic aesthetics rejected stereotypes and demanded the originality of each artist, and this gave all its adherents wide freedom. In the middle of the 19th century, when Mérimée’s work continued to develop, the boundaries of this freedom expanded even more, which gave rise to such phenomena that are difficult to strictly classify, such as Mérimée’s work.

Prosper Merimee never had such fame and authority as Stendhal or Balzac. But this does not weaken the significance of his work. Merimee's artistic development turned out to be closely connected with the course of social life of his country, although the writer himself did not try to publicly substantiate or publicly declare this connection. An important role in Merimee’s creative development was played by his acquaintance with Stendhal in 1822. Stendhal drew Merimee into the ranks of the Republicans, dragging him with his fighting spirit and uncompromising attitude towards the Restoration regime.

In 1827, Merimee published the collection “Guzla, or Collection of Illyrian Songs Recorded in Dalmatia, Bosnia, Croatia and Herzegovina,” which allegedly had a pronounced romantic character. In fact, the collection was a mockery of romantic values: only one Serbian song was actually folklore, the other 28 were created by Merimee himself and published as folklore. It is surprising that A. S. Pushkin, A. Mitskevich and a number of German scientists took the collection seriously: dissertations were defended in Germany, Pushkin and Mitskevich translated a number of songs as folk songs.

In 1835, Pushkin turned to Professor Sobolevsky, who personally knew Merimee, with a request to clarify the situation. Merimee sent letters of apology to Russia and explained: “I wrote “Guzla” for two reasons - firstly, I wanted to laugh at the “local color” into which we blindly fell.” Another motive turned out to be completely trivial: lack of money. Merimee apologized and was amazed that Pushkin had been caught. The so-called folk ballads carry an ironic subtext that is hard not to see.

In 1825, Merimee published the collection “The Theater of Clara Gasoul,” which was a new hoax. Now Merimee was hiding behind the name of a fictitious Spanish writer and theater worker. Allegedly, Spanish plays are surprising at Merimee’s ability to penetrate the soul of another people. Spain became one of Merimee's aesthetic reference points back in the 1820s and acquired special significance for his work. Merimee contrasted French classicism, which at that time still reigned on the Parisian stage, degenerating and causing nausea, with the lively Spanish theater, carrying a strong charge of Renaissance aesthetics. Merimee, in general, contrasted rational and cynical France with spontaneous and “subconscious” Spain.

In 1825, in the treatise “Racine and Shakespeare,” Stendhal set before French literature the task of creating national historical genres, which, thanks to Shakespeare and Scott, had long been developed in Britain, but, due to the out-of-historicity and cosmopolitanism of classicism, were practically absent in France. Hugo (“Notre Dame de Paris”), de Vigny, and others responded to the call.

Merimee in the 20s - 30s. creates the historical drama "Jacquerie", which takes place against the backdrop of a peasant uprising of the 14th century, and the historical novel "Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX" (religious civil wars of the 16th century). The writer's revolutionary views emerge especially strongly in the second work. Merimee shows how the church turned the nation into a gang of murderers, because it was not personally Charles IX, Catherine de Medici and the Duke of Guise who massacred the unfortunate Huguenots during St. Bartholomew's Night. This was done by ordinary Frenchmen under the influence of the church, which turned Bernard de Mergi (the main character of the novel) into the fratricide-Cain.

After the Revolution of 1830, a large number of Republicans received government positions. Stendhal began serving as consul in Italy, Mérimée took the position of chief inspector of historical monuments of France. He carried out this mission for more than 20 years and did a lot of useful things. He managed to save many architectural monuments, churches, sculptures, and frescoes from destruction. He did a lot to spread interest in the art of medieval France, publishing a number of archaeological, historical and art works. The service required so much time that the writer had practically no opportunity to engage in fiction. Therefore, after 1830, a major literary form disappeared from his work. He turns to the short story genre. Merimee thinks about each such work for a long time, and only then transfers it to paper. Merimee's novella retains a close connection with the romantic tradition. This is manifested at the level of exoticism (“Tamango”), depiction of the customs of people from countries far from civilization (“Mateo Falcone”, “Colomba”, “Carmen”, “Receiving the Redoubt”), interest in the manifestations of the irrational, mystical principle in reality ( “The Vision of Charles IX”, “Venus of Il”, “Lokis”, analysis of inexplicable spiritual impulses (“Backgammon Party”), reflection of the color and spirit of intense historical eras (“Federigo”, “Souls of Purgatory”), showing the emptiness of spiritual life his contemporaries (“Etruscan Vase”, “Double Fault”), attention to the fate of people from the “bottom” (“Arsenia Guillot”).

However, romantic themes in Merimee's works are usually dealt with in a realistic manner. For example, the short story “Tamango” (1829) presents a realistic picture of the slave trade, which was opposed by democratically minded people at the beginning of the 19th century. The fact that Merimee presents a realistic picture is evidenced by a comparison of his short story with the novels of the romantics Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom's Cabin), Hugo (Bug-Jargal), which are devoted to the same problem. In the works of romantics, blacks embody the author's subjective ideas, an attempt to prove that black slaves are the same children of God as whites. Therefore, black protagonists in the works of romantics are presented in an extremely idealized form. Merimee, like all realists, speaks the “bitter truth.” It shows slave trader Captain Ledoux trading people for bottles and a necklace. Black leaders trade with their own subordinates, since the trifles that Ledoux offers them are much more valuable to them than people.

However, the picture of a blind man and at the same time the majestic rush of slaves to freedom is certainly full of romance.

Merimee Prosper is a French writer. He comes from a petty-bourgeois environment, from the family of an artist, whose classicist style influenced the young man. The romantic style of the Poems of Ossian had no less influence on him, and he also experienced a short-lived passion for Rousseauism. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Sorbonne. In 1822, Merimee met Stendhal, who had a great influence on him, including the article “Racine and Shakespeare”; around this time, Merimee visited the Delecluse circle, where the cult of Shakespeare also reigned. The periodization of Merimee's work is determined by two historical events: the July Revolution of 1830 and the revolutionary events of 1848, while changes in the circumstances of life, political and social views of the writer are coordinated with the restructuring of the system of genres, the development of the artistic method, the evolution of issues and style.

Success came to Prosper in 1825, when Mérimée published her book “The Theater of Clara Gazul,” a double hoax (narrated on behalf of the Spanish actress Gazul) in the form of plays created by her, which in turn were commented on by a certain translator L. Estrange. The plays were very bold in their content and had, in some way, an anti-clerical and anti-monarchist orientation. Considering that in 1825 a law on sacrilege was passed in France, threatening opponents of the church with the death penalty, Merimee’s act was very courageous.

In 1827, Merimee then published the book “Guzlya” (after the name of the musical instrument) - a collection of pseudo-South Slavic songs by the storyteller Giakinf Maglanovich. Having successfully satisfied the romantic passion for mystifications, Pushkin ("Songs of the Western Slavs"), Mickiewicz and the German scientist Gerhard fell for the bait of "Guzlya", who enthusiastically translated "Guzlya" into their languages ​​as an independent original), Merimee devoted himself to serious creativity. In 1828, his historical chronicle drama “The Jacquerie” was published, telling the story of the uprising of French peasants in the 14th century, called the Jacquerie. Following her, Merimee writes “The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles 9” - one of the best French historical novels. Mérimée avoids lyricism, the exalted excitement of the romantics is alien to him; throughout the “Chronicle” there is a hidden polemic with both the historical novel of Walter Scott and the “ethical” branch of the historical novel represented by Hugo and Vigny. Merimee is not interested in historical progress in itself, just as he is not concerned with abstract ideas of moralism. He is interested in the “image of a person,” however, Merimee’s view of a person is historical: “...The actions of people who lived in the 16th century cannot be approached with the standards of the 19th century.” Laconism, even some dryness in presentation, a complete absence of declamation, romantic “eloquence” are typical of Merimee. This sharply separates Merimee from the romantics, with whom he is only to a small extent united by his interest in exotic and fantastic subjects. Developing them, Merimee turns to the short story genre, in which she achieves the greatest depth and expressiveness. Merimee pays special attention to the typification of psychology. The worsening psychologism affected artistic techniques, in particular, the change in the role of the narrator. If in his early works, through mystification and objective “free narration,” the writer sought, as it were, from the inside to reveal the world of someone else’s consciousness, someone else’s psychology, now the figure of a French narrator appears, who wants to penetrate into the alien psychology from the outside, trying to understand its nature and without rejecting something that is contrary to French traditions. This is how the short story “Mateo Falcone” (Corsica), “The Capture of the Redoubt” (about the capture of the Shevardinsky redoubt near Borodino) is constructed.

After the July Revolution, when Merimee's political friends, close to the circles of the financial and industrial bourgeoisie, came to power, Merimee received the post of inspector of historical monuments of France. Passionate about his work, traveling a lot in France, England, Germany and Italy, Merimee devotes his leisure time mainly to art criticism works: “Notes on a trip to the south of France” (1835), “Study on religious architecture” (1837) and many others. etc.

Merimee's artistic works of the early 30s. are extremely few in number and indicate Merimee’s departure from social themes to intimate psychological sketches, to depictions of the salon and social circles of French society. These are, as a rule, realistic short stories - “The Etruscan Vase” (1830), “Double Fault” (1833). Merimee's horizons are limited here mainly by the depiction of salon and secular circles of society. Without becoming a complete representative of this environment, Merimee, however, absorbs some of its influences, the most important of which was reflected in Merimee’s craving for psychological analysis, not for that Stendhal analysis in which the social-class psychology of the characters is revealed, but for the indifferent, slightly ironic observation of “universals” processes of mental life.

However, the period of rapprochement between Merimee's group and the July winners was short-lived. The revolution didn't change anything. In accordance with these sentiments, in Merimee's subsequent short stories there is a departure from salon-secular sketches and a predominance of the former - historical, fantastic and exotic - plot. Such are the short stories “The Souls of Purgatory” (1834), one of the excellent interpretations of the plot of Don Juan, and “Venus of Illes” (1837), rich in archaeological and art history impressions from Merimee. In 1840, one of Merimee's best works was published - the story "Colomba", in which the writer again returned to the praise of Corsica. In the short story "Arsene Guillot" (1844), Mérimée touches on the topic of class inequality for the last time. In 1845, the most famous of Merimee’s works was published - the story “Carmen”, in which the writer managed to recreate one of the “world images” similar to Hamlet, Don Quixote - the image of Carmen, for whom freedom is more valuable than life.

Merimee was already a completely bourgeois writer. As a result of a chance acquaintance with the family of Eugenia Montijo, who became the French Empress in 1853, Merimee became a courtier and senator. Over the next years, he continued his studies in art history, devoted himself to numerous historical works, publishing Stendhal's letters and memoirs about him, criticism, etc. Having almost completely broken with artistic creativity, he only published the story "Lokis" in 1869; the last two short stories, Juman and The Blue Room, appeared after his death.

Mérimée did a lot to popularize Russian literature and history in France. Back in the late 20s. he acquires his first Russian acquaintances and later becomes close to A. I. Turgenev and S. A. Sobolevsky, having a connection with Pushkin through the latter - he gets acquainted with E. A. Baratynsky, I. S. Turgenev, Lev Pushkin and others. Having studied Russian language, Merimee translates Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, reads Russian historians, compiling a number of articles on Russian history from their works, and writes several articles about Pushkin, Gogol, I. S. Turgenev. The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature elected Merimee as its honorary member in 1862

Novels by Merimee

The formation of Mérimée as a writer took place during a time of fierce struggle between literary youth, who sought to update French literature, and writers of the older generation, who preferred the time-tested canons of classicism.

For Merimee, the form of the short story was new. But he wanted to reveal the character of other peoples and eras through a single event. Events always lead to romanticism. Their realistic feature is associated with the development of a historically determined character, the transition from local color to a realistic image.

Genre game - the author depicted someone else's consciousness. The narrator is an educated, civilized Frenchman. But now it is shown from the outside, they show something that contradicts the established French consciousness. The structure of the short stories is closed. Merimee's short stories are also dramatic. Analysis of passions forces us to move to synthesis. Based on several characters, the consciousness and psychology of an entire nation is restored. In a number of his short stories (“Etruscan Vase”, “Double Fault”, “Arsena Guillot”) Merimee reveals the soullessness and callousness of the so-called “light”. A vicious and hypocritical secular society, as Merimee shows, does not tolerate bright individuals. It gives rise to special vulnerability and painful distrust of others in people who are sensitive by nature.

“Mosaic”: “Mateo Falcone”, “Vision of Charles XI”, “Tamango”, “Ballads”, “Taking of the Redoubt”, “Backgammon Party”, “Federigo”, “Magic Gun”, “Etruscan Vase”, “The Dissatisfied”, “Letters from Spain” are completely different short stories. Title of the collection: mosaic - from small details, together - kaleidoscope = life. The fragments have no order, no structure, everything is chaotic.

Merimee creates elliptical novellas - an artistic structure in which all the content is realized around 2 hidden centers. The main technique is contrast. Both centers are 2 stories interacting with each other. Often short stories have a frame composition (a story within a story). Frame – often scientific reflections, assumptions.

“Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” (1829) is one of the best French historical novels, in which Merimee “gets used to” the psychology and morals of his compatriots, but who lived in the 16th century. Merimee did not accept the form of historical novel that the romantics developed. Here, too, he experiments with the genre in “the search for a narrative that most adequately reflects reality. The novel, which is based on social and moral issues, is structured as a work about the private life of two brothers, their desire to make a career, to achieve the love of a charming court lady. Such a shift in emphasis to personal life events are based on Merimee's concept of historicism.Mérimée outlined his idea of ​​​​the principles of reproducing the past in the preface to the novel and Chapter VIII “Dialogue between the reader and the author.”

In the preface, Merimee says that in history he loves only anecdotes (remember that in the times of Merimee and Pushkin, events from the lives of private individuals were called an anecdote). If the first condition is to reproduce the private life of an ordinary person, then the second presupposes loyalty to the mores of the era. “Therefore, the actions of people of the past must be judged according to the laws of this past. Following this judgment, Merimee concludes: “the Parisian townspeople, by killing heretics, firmly believed that they were obeying the voice of Heaven.” And finally, the author’s last reflection on the laws of the historical novel: “I’m just saying - let’s assume this.”

The remoteness in time and the multi-causality of events make it possible to create only versions of historical events and their origins. The author's version of the motives for Bartholomew's Night is the hatred of Charles IX for Admiral Coligny, a Protestant who was much smarter and more talented than the “autocrat”, the king’s feeling of his mental and moral inferiority. Merimee refuses to describe in detail the chambers and clothes of the heroes. He invites readers to look at the portraits of the characters in the museum. Merimee refuses the romantic principle of making the face the mirror of the soul. The character in his novel reveals himself in action. For example, the deceitful and vicious soul of the king is revealed in persuading Georges Mergi to kill Admiral Coligny. The color of the time is reproduced in the novel: Merimee describes the costumes of the Mergi brothers only to show how modest the Huguenots are and how Catholics strive for luxury. Each item serves only to reveal the author’s main idea, but does not have a self-sufficient meaning, as in W. Scott.

The novel, which describes the events of the late 16th century, reproduces its morals: the rudeness and cruelty of the mercenary reiters, the interpretation of the predictions of gypsies, cruel, naturalistic reprisals against the Huguenots, the ignorance of not only the common people and monks, but also the court lady Diana de Turgis . The exceptions are the de Mergy brothers, especially Georges. Free-thinking, courage, inability to carry out the orders of even the king if they contradict the ideas of honor and humanity, tender love for his brother distinguish him from all the heroes of the novel. But it is he who dies in the finale: this reflects the author’s skepticism and pessimism. The ending of the novel is especially significant, because the author invites the reader to decide for himself whether Bertrand will be consoled and whether Diana de Turges will have a new lover. Completeness and unambiguity seem to Merimee to be a simplification in the interpretation of human psychology.

(1803- 1870)

The biography of Prosper Merimee reflects the vibrant life of a man - a famous writer, politician, artist, member of the French Academy of Sciences.

Prosper was born in Paris on September 28, 1803. The father of the future writer, Jean François Leonor Merimee, was a chemist and was seriously interested in painting. Prosper's mother was also a successful artist. The young man, who received a law degree in Paris, became the secretary of one of the ministers of the French government. Then, having received the post of chief inspector for the preservation of cultural and historical monuments of the country, he did a lot in this field. In 1853, Merimee received the title of senator.

However, Merimee's career played a secondary role in his life; his main concern was literary creativity. While still a student, he attended a society whose members were passionate about science and the arts. These were truly international meetings, attended by the French, Germans, English, and Russians. It was to this society that Prosper Merimee presented his first work, which he called “Cromwell,” and which earned the approval of Stendhal. The author himself did not like the work and it was not published.

At the age of 22, Merimee published a collection of dramatic plays, which he presented with his translation from Spanish. In 1827, the creative biography of Prosper Merimee was marked by the release in Srastburg of his famous “Guzlov”, which the poet presented as a collection of songs by an unknown bard from Dalmatia. This work caused a lot of noise throughout all European countries. Although Goethe and Gerhard (the scientist who managed to discover the size of Illyrian verse in the prose “Guzlov”) expressed great doubt that this work belongs to folk art. Nevertheless, this clever counterfeit of the motives of folk poetry misled many famous poets and writers of that time, including A. S. Pushkin and Mitskevich.

All subsequent works of the writer are filled with bright, original images, an example of which is Carmen, the heroine of the novel of the same name. The writer’s research on the history of Ancient Rome and Greece and the reign of Don Pedro I deserves high praise.

Many pages of Prosper Merime's biography are devoted to his creative connections with Russian writers; the writer was especially interested in the works of A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol. In order to read the works of these writers in the original, Merimee studies the Russian language and becomes a promoter of Russian culture in her homeland. He translated Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades” into French, his essay about N.V. Gogol was published in one of the magazines, and in 1853 Merimee completed the translation of “The Inspector General”. The writer's essays on the era of Peter the Great, the Russian Cossacks, and the time of troubles are published in French periodicals. Beginning in 1837 and ending in 1890, various Russian periodicals published the works of the great French writer translated into Russian, such as “Bartholomew’s Night”, “Double Failure”, “Carmen” and others.

Plan:
1. Features of the work of Prosper Merimee. The place of short stories in his legacy.

List of used literature.

1. Features of the work of Prosper Merimee. The place of short stories in his legacy.

Prosper Mérimée (1803 - 1870) is one of the remarkable French critical realists of the 19th century, a brilliant playwright and master of artistic prose. Mérimée, unlike Stendhal and Balzac, did not become the ruler of the thoughts of entire generations; the impact he had on the spiritual life of France. was less wide and powerful. However, the aesthetic significance of his work is great. The works he created are unfading: the truth of life is so deeply embodied in them, their form is so perfect.
The writer has gone through a long and difficult creative path. As an artist, he gained fame and recognition before Stendhal and Balzac, in the years when the romantics were just rising to storm the stronghold of classicism, and the literature of critical realism was giving its first sprouts. Merimee's last short story, “Lokis,” was published in 1869, two years before the events of the Commune, simultaneously with Flaubert’s “Education of Sentiments” and Verlaine’s collection of poems “Gallant Celebrations.”
Merimee's internal appearance, the contradictions inherent in his worldview, and the peculiarities of his artistic style cannot be comprehended without taking into account the uniqueness of the evolution he experienced. The artistic development of Merimee turned out to be closely connected with the course of social life of the country. Its main milestones generally coincide with turning points, key moments in the history of France, and above all with the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.
Merimee began to show interest in independent literary creativity in the early 20s, during his student days (in 1823 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris). Initially, Merimee's aesthetic preferences were exclusively romantic. He read Byron enthusiastically and began translating The Songs of Ossian. However, a decisive role in the development of Merimee’s creative image (although he himself later tried to downplay the significance of this influence) was played by his acquaintance in 1822 with Stendhal, by that time a completely mature man.
Stendhal captivated Merimee with the fighting spirit of his political convictions and the irreconcilability of his hostility towards the Restoration regime. It was he who introduced Merimee to the teachings of Helvetius and Condillac, with the ideas of their student Cabanis, and directed the aesthetic thought of the future author of the preface to the “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” along a materialist channel. Mérimée the playwright learned a lot from the artistic program put forward by Stendhal in the literary manifesto “Racine and Shakespeare.”
Soon after meeting Stendhal, Merimee's independent literary activity began. For the first time, however, Mérimée gained widespread fame in 1825, publishing the collection “The Theater of Clara Gasoul.” The publication of this work was associated with a daring hoax that caused a lot of speculation. Mérimée passed off his collection as the work of a certain Spanish actress and public figure, Clara Gasul, whom he fictitious. For greater persuasiveness, he invented a biography of Clara Gasul, full of fighting spirit, and prefaced it with the collection. Merimee, obviously, did not want to advertise himself as the author of the book due to the political sensitivity of its content and the severity of royal censorship (however, in literary circles the name of the creator of the “Clara Gasul Theater” was no secret to anyone). But first of all, perhaps, something else had an impact: the innate taste of the young, mischievous writer for practical jokes and forgeries and the natural desire to continue the line of stylization that made its way out in individual plays in the collection.
“Theater of Clara Gasoul” is an extremely original phenomenon from French drama of the 20s of the 19th century. Merimee's plays, imbued with sympathy for the liberation movement of the Spanish people, sounded cheerful and breathed an optimistic belief in the inevitability of the victory of the progressive principle. The work of the aspiring writer was, at the same time, one of the earliest and most decisive attempts to overthrow the epigones of classicism, ossified in their dogmatism, who dominated the French scene at that time.
Mérimée's contemporaries, accustomed to lengthy arguments and extended, pompous monologues of classic playwrights, were struck in Mérimée's plays by the rapid development of action, the continuous alternation of short expressive scenes, complete disregard for the rules of three unities, unexpected and sharp transitions from satirical episodes to passages filled with high pathos. and tragedy.
The first period of Prosper Merimee’s literary activity ends with his historical novel “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” (1829) - a kind of result of the writer’s ideological and artistic quest in these years.
During the Restoration period (1815 - 1830), when the Bourbon dynasty, overthrown by the people during the revolution, returned to power, Mérimée's work was distinguished by its politically militant character and was permeated with topical issues. It contained a sharp denunciation of feudal orders, the power of clergy and nobles, and a condemnation of religious fanaticism.
Prosper Merimee at the beginning of his creative career, as already noted, joined the romantic movement. The influence of romantic aesthetics continued to be felt in the writer’s works for a long time; it is palpable throughout his entire creative heritage. But gradually Merimee’s literary activity took on an increasingly distinctly realistic character. The drama “The Jacquerie” and the novel “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” by Merimee are striking examples of the keen interest in historical issues, in the study and understanding of the national past, which embraced the advanced social and artistic thought of France in the 20s and early 30s of the XIX century. centuries.
The originality of the artistic style in which “The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” was written is determined by the concept of the work: the desire to comprehensively and objectively characterize the social atmosphere that dominated the country during the years of the religious wars, to highlight the depiction of the morals and sentiments of ordinary people.
“The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” completes the first stage of Merimee’s literary activity. The July Revolution causes significant changes in the writer’s life. During the Restoration, the Bourbon government tried to attract Mérimée to public service, but these attempts remained in vain. After the July Revolution in February 1831, influential friends secured for Mérimée the position of head of the office of the Minister of Naval Affairs. He then moved to the Ministry of Trade and Public Works, and from there to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Religion. Merimee carried out his duties as an official in the most careful manner, but they weighed heavily on him. It is characteristic that during the first three years of public service, Merimee completely abandoned artistic creativity. He tries to find an outlet in secular entertainment, but this pastime does not cure him of melancholy. It was during these years that Merimee’s inner appearance finally crystallized. The mask of a cold, sarcastic skeptic and an imperturbable dandy serves as his protection: under it he hides a sensitive heart, a sympathetic and vulnerable soul.
A certain breakthrough came in 1834, when Merimee was appointed chief inspector of historical monuments of France. Holding this position for almost twenty years, Merimee played a noticeable and honorable role in the history of the country's artistic culture. He managed to save many beautiful ancient monuments, churches, sculptures, and frescoes from destruction and damage. Through his activities, he contributed to the development of interest in Romanesque and Gothic art and its scientific study. Official duties prompted Merimee to make repeated long trips around the country. Their fruit was books in which Mérimée combined descriptions and analysis of the monuments he had studied, interspersing these scientific materials with travel sketches (“Notes on a trip to the south of France”, etc.). Over the years, Merimee also wrote a number of special archaeological and art works (for example, on medieval architecture, wall painting, etc.). Finally, he began to engage in purely historical research (the most significant of which was devoted to the history of Rome).
Since 1829, when the “Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX” was published, serious changes have occurred in the artistic development of the writer. During the years of the Restoration, Merimee was interested in depicting large social cataclysms, creating broad social canvases, developing historical subjects; his attention was attracted by large monumental genres. In his artistic works of the 30s and 40s, with rare exceptions, he did not directly touch on political issues, delving into the depiction of ethical conflicts and at the same time paying more attention to contemporary topics than historical ones. Now Mérimée the artist is moving away from the novel and is almost not involved in drama, focusing his interest mainly on the small narrative form - the short story, and achieving outstanding creative results in this area.
Critical and humanistic tendencies are just as vividly embodied in Mérimée’s short stories as in his previous works, but they change their focus. After the July Revolution, the contradictions generated by bourgeois relations became dominant in French reality. These social changes are reflected in the writer’s work, and above all in the problems of his works. The ideological pathos of his short stories is in the depiction of bourgeois conditions of existence as a force that levels out human individuality, fosters petty, base interests in people, instills hypocrisy and selfishness, and is hostile to the formation of whole and strong people, capable of all-consuming, selfless feelings. The scope of reality narrowed in Merimee's short stories, but the writer penetrated deeper - in comparison with the works of the 20s - into the inner world of a person, realistically more consistently showing the conditioning of his character by the external environment.
2. Artistic features of P. Merimee’s short stories.
Merimee's short stories are permeated by several leading themes. They contain, first of all, an insightful and sharp denunciation of the mores of the dominant society. These critical tendencies, very diverse in their forms, were clearly revealed already in the writer’s first novelistic experiments, dating back to 1829 - 1830 and subsequently included in the collection “Mosaic” (1833).
In the short story “Tamango” (1829), Merimee, with caustic irony, paints the image of a typical representative of a hypocritical and soulless bourgeois civilization, the slave trader Captain Ledoux. Captain Ice and his assistants are opposed in the novel by the black leader Tamango and his fellow tribesmen. Speaking against the colonial activities of whites and the oppression of blacks, Mérimée picked up a theme common in French literature of the 20s. Thus, Hugo’s novel “Bug-Jargal” was very popular during these years (its second version was published in 1826). Unlike Hugo, who was then paving the way for romanticism, Mérimée did not create an idealized image of a black leader that was elevated above reality. He emphasized the primitiveness and savagery of his hero. Tamango, like other blacks, is ignorant, subject to dark superstitions, subject to blind instincts, selfish and cruel. However, Tamango also has deeply human traits that elevate the black man above his enslavers. They are reflected in Tamango’s irresistible desire for freedom, in the strength of his affection, in his ability to experience, albeit unbridled, but powerful feelings, in the pride and endurance that he shows at the time of difficult trials. So gradually the reader comes to the conclusion that in the civilized but disgusting bourgeois Ledoux there is more barbarism hidden than in the savage Tamango.
Therefore, the ending of the novella is saturated with such sharp sarcasm, telling about the pitiful and gloomy fate that awaited Tamango in captivity. Here, every word of the writer “includes a deep ironic subtext. The planters were convinced that they had benefited Tamango by restoring his life and turning him into an exemplary regimental timpanist. However, the black giant, accustomed to freedom, withered away from these “good deeds”, took to drinking and soon died in the hospital.
The ending of Tamango marks a new milestone in the treatment of colonial themes by realistic literature of the 19th century in the West. The tragic fate of the natives in the conditions of a two-faced bourgeois civilization appears here in its unvarnished, ordinary, prosaically painful form. Her depiction not only departs far from the rationalistic utopias of the 18th century enlighteners (remember Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and his ideal relationship with Friday, subordinate to educational tasks). It is also fundamentally different from the sublimely pathetic interpretation of this topic by the romantics.
This does not mean that Merimee, while working on Tamango, ignored the creative experience of the romantics. On the contrary, the writer used it and refracted it in a unique way in this artistically multifaceted work (as in a number of other short stories written at the turn of the 20s and 30s). This is evidenced, for example, by pages depicting the powerful rush of slaves to freedom.
The assertion of the incompatibility of moral dignity with submission to the dirty power of money also permeates another of Mérimée’s early short stories, “The Backgammon Party” (1830). It reveals the emotional drama of a young naval officer, Lieutenant Roger. The thought that for the sake of money he betrayed his character and stooped to theft haunts Roger. She gradually destroys his peace of mind. Merimee introduces these ideological and psychological motives into his short story, ending it with a picture of the growing confusion of a person who suddenly loses his sense of spiritual integrity. By reproducing experiences that escaped the control of reason, the writer overcame the rationalistic ideas about the laws of mental life inherited from the 18th century and expanded the scope of psychological analysis in fiction.
In a number of his short stories (“Etruscan Vase”, “Double Fault”, “Arsena Guillot”) Merimee reveals the callousness and callousness of the so-called “light”. A vicious and hypocritical secular society, as Merimee shows, does not tolerate bright individuals. It is hostile to any manifestation of genuine passion and seeks to destroy everyone who is at least somewhat unlike itself. It gives rise to increased vulnerability and painful distrust of others in people who are sensitive by nature. The hero of the short story “The Etruscan Vase” (1830), Saint-Clair, is a sincere man, capable, unlike his devastated secular surroundings, of experiencing a strong feeling. That is why secular society becomes hostile to Saint Clair and ultimately destroys him.
We find a realistically in-depth solution to the same topic in one of Merimee’s best short stories, “Double Fault” (1833). In this short story (Pushkin gave it a high rating in the preface to “Songs of the Western Slavs”) there are three main characters. All of them are, to one degree or another, infected with egoism, crippled and enslaved by the power of money reigning around them. Shaverni is a typical embodiment of a rude and vulgar owner. He was accustomed to looking at his beautiful wife as something purchased at an expensive price. Darcy seems to be a person of a completely different, elevated, intellectual plane. But upon closer examination, he turns out to be an egoist to the core. Finally, Julie herself is largely to blame for the fact that her life was ruined. And she also has selfishness. But this is the selfishness of weak natures, afraid to face the truth, covering up their selfishness with sentimental dreams. It was they who gave rise to illusionary hopes in Julie that Darcy, whom she herself had once inflicted an indelible mental wound on, would want to selflessly come to her aid. The heroes of “Double Wrong,” a short story devoid of any didactic flavor, are not divided into the perpetrators and their victims. The origins of evil, which disfigures the lives of people who are good in their inclinations and prevents them from achieving happiness, are rooted in the very nature of society - this is the ideological content of the novella.
Another famous short story by Merimee, “Venus of Illes” (1837), also tells about the unnaturalness of the bourgeois marriage transaction. Merimee himself considered this work his best short story. It very uniquely and skillfully combines the features of everyday realism and elements of fantasy. Moreover, such a combination does not violate the artistic harmony of the whole, because fantastic motifs in the hands of Merimee acquire a realistic meaning and serve to reveal objective social laws. The statue of Venus becomes a symbol of beauty, desecrated by the vulgarity of the bourgeois environment. Peyrorad the Father, this pedantic, self-important and devoid of aesthetic taste provincial lover of antiquity (Mérimée repeatedly encountered numerous prototypes of this character during his trips to France), is incapable of understanding beauty in art. As for Peyrorad the son, his image no longer evokes a smile, but disgust. This narrow-minded, tactless and narcissistic bourgeois, who recognizes only one value in life - a tightly stuffed wallet, tramples the beauty of human relationships, in love, in marriage. For this, the angry Venus takes revenge on him.
Throughout his life, Merimee, a rationalist and heir to the Enlightenment traditions, carried a hostile attitude towards the church and religion. These ideological motives are reflected in the writer’s short stories. In this regard, first of all, of course, mention should be made of “The Souls of Purgatory” (1834). The artistic style in which “The Souls of Purgatory” was written has a hint of stylization and imitation of ancient chronicles. This narrative technique has more than once misled critics and prompted them to attribute to the writer religious and apologetic goals that were completely alien to him. In fact, the ideological orientation of the novella is exactly the opposite.
Romantics, turning to the treatment of the legend of Don Juan, were inclined to poeticize the famous literary image and give it a positive sound. Merimee in “The Souls of Purgatory” took a different path. In his short story, he joined the old, revelatory, anti-noble and anti-clerical tradition in its interpretation of the image of the Seville seducer, dating back to Moliere. But he developed this tradition by applying the narrative skills characteristic of 19th-century realistic literature.
He sought, firstly, to individualize the image of Don Juan as much as possible and therefore, when talking about his fate, he abandoned the usual classical plot scheme. We will not find in Merimee's novella either Donna Anna, or the murdered commander, her husband, or the story of Don Juan's bold challenge to the statue, or the intervention of hellish forces. In “The Souls of Purgatory” we will not find the usual comic image of Don Juan’s servant.
Secondly, when retelling the life story of Don Juan, Merimee paid particular attention to depicting the social environment surrounding this character and its impact on the formation of the hero’s morals. The internal appearance of this environment, of which Don Juan is flesh and blood, is figuratively captured by the writer in the title of the short story. The “souls of purgatory” are people like don Juan, or his parent, or countless Spanish nobles like them. These are people who deliberately divide their lives in half. They devote the first half to an unbridled thirst for pleasure, to satisfying their worldly instincts and carnal lusts at any cost. Then, when they have had enough of worldly goods, they experience conversion and begin to pose as saints. Religion helps them atone for their sins and promises them bliss in the afterlife. It is duality that turns out to be characteristic of the fate of don Juan.
Already from childhood, his parents prepared their son for such a double life. The image of the souls of purgatory runs through Merimee's entire novella. He accompanies the hero at all the most important stages of his life's journey. He appears before him at that turning point when don Juan decides to escape from his dissolute past and find refuge from the human judgment that threatens him in the bosom of the church. The episode of Don Juan's conversion plays an important role in the content of Merimee's novella. Its main ideological meaning lies in revealing the selfishness and heartlessness that is hidden behind the hypocritical guise of religious hypocrisy. It is precisely the reluctance to stoop to this hypocritical deception that elevates one of his seducers, the unbridled Don Garcia, above Don Juan. If Don Garcia's disbelief takes on the character of a firm conviction and bold rebellion, then Don Juan turns out to be a half-hearted and inconsistent “soul of purgatory.”
A significant role in Merimee's short stories is played by the writer's artistic embodiment of his positive ideal. In a number of early short stories (such as “The Etruscan Vase”, “Backgammon Party”) Merimee connects the search for this ideal with images of honest, most principled and pure representatives of the dominant society. Gradually, however, Merimee’s gaze more and more persistently turns to people standing outside this society, to representatives of the people’s environment. In their minds, Merimee reveals those spiritual qualities dear to his heart, which, in his opinion, have already been lost by bourgeois circles: integrity of character and passion of nature, selflessness and inner independence.
While empathetically depicting the noble, heroic traits of the people, Mereme did not hide the negative aspects of their way of life. This theme was first heard in the now classic short story “Matteo Falcone” (1829), in an exceptionally vivid image of its protagonist. Similar ideological motives found expression in some short stories of the 30s (noteworthy, for example, is the figure of the Catalan guide from the short story “Venus of Illes”). However, they were most fully revealed in the works created by the writer in the 40s, and above all in the large short story “Colomba” (1840), which especially noticeably approaches the type of story.
This novella is built on contrast. Reproducing the vicissitudes of the blood feud that flared up between the della Rebbia and Barricini families, Merimee contrasts two completely different worldviews, two concepts of life. One of them is represented by the main character of the story, Colomba, and is rooted in the midst of popular ideas about justice and honor. The other developed on the putrid soil of new, bourgeois mores and is embodied in the guise of the slippery and treacherous lawyer Barricini. If for Colomba there is nothing higher than military valor and courage, then Barricini’s main weapon turns out to be money, bribery, and legal slander.
The other images of this story are also expressively and plastically sculpted by the writer. This is, first of all, Colomba's brother - Orso, a retired officer of the French army, a participant in the Battle of Waterloo. The story of Orso’s inner experiences, already in many ways cut off from his native soil, constitutes an important ideological line of the work. In development, the writer shows the inner appearance of Lydia, the daughter of a good-natured Irishman, Colonel Sir Thomas Neville. An eccentric and spoiled secular girl, faced with living reality, gradually begins to forget about secular conventions and increasingly submits to the impulse of immediate and passionate feelings. The graceful, but fragile and to some extent hothouse figure of Lydia Neuville helps the writer to even more clearly highlight the unique, wild beauty of the central character of the story.
The technique of contrast was also used by Merimee in his famous short story “Carmen” (1845). On the one hand, we have before us a narrator, an inquisitive scientist and traveler, a representative of a sophisticated, but somewhat relaxed European civilization. This image attracts the reader's sympathy. There are undoubtedly autobiographical details in it. He resembles Merimee himself with the humanistic and democratic features of his worldview. But his figure is also illuminated by the light of irony. An ironic smile slides across the author's lips when he reproduces the narrator's scientific research, shows their speculativeness and abstraction, or when he depicts his hero's inclination to calmly observe the stormy life drama boiling around him. The purpose of these characteristic strokes is to highlight as clearly as possible the deep originality, passion, and elemental power inherent in Carmen and Don Jose.
The ability of Carmen and Don Jose to surrender to the all-consuming power of passions is the source of the integrity of their natures, which amazes the reader, and the charm of their images. Carmen absorbed a lot of bad things from the criminal environment in which she grew up. She cannot help but lie and deceive; she is ready to take part in any thieving adventure. But Carmen’s contradictory inner appearance also conceals such wonderful spiritual qualities that pampered or hardened representatives of the dominant society lack. This is sincerity and honesty in the most intimate feeling for her - love. This is a proud, unyielding love of freedom,” a willingness to sacrifice everything, including life, for the sake of preserving internal independence.
An outstanding place in Merimee’s literary heritage also belongs to the short story “Arsene Guillot” (1844), a work in which the main ideological motives of Merimee as a novelist merge together: a depiction of repulsive egoism that hides behind the hypocritical mask of respectable representatives and representatives of bourgeois society, condemnation of religious bigotry, sympathy for a man of the people. The main character of “Arsena Guillot” is no longer an inhabitant of “exotic” countries like Spain or Corsica, but a resident of the capital of France, one of the countless victims of bourgeois civilization, a representative of the Parisian “bottom.”
Hopeless need pushes Arsene Guillot onto the path of prostitution. In the eyes of society ladies, she is a “fallen” creature. The life of poor Arsena is unbearably difficult, but she has one consolation left, one feeling that warms her - love for Saligny, memories of past happy days, the opportunity to dream. However, this joy is also denied to her by her rich and pious patroness. Hypocritically appealing to the laws of morality and the precepts of religion, Madame de Piennes harasses Arsena with reproaches, depriving her of even the right to think about love. What poverty failed to do, “philanthropy” and bigotry complete.
Merimee's revealing novella was perceived by secular society as a daring challenge, as a loud slap in the face. Hypocrites, saints and guardians of secular decency screamed about immorality and violation of the truth of life. The academicians, who, the day before the publication of Arsene Guillot (published on March 15, 1844), cast their votes for Merimee in the elections to the French Academy, now condemned the writer and disowned him. However, "Arsene Guillot" remained the last significant achievement of Mérimée the novelist. The revolution of 1848 was approaching, which caused a new serious turn in his creative development.
Initially, the revolutionary events did not cause much concern for Mérimée: he was sympathetic to the establishment of the republic. However, gradually the writer’s mood changes and becomes more and more alarming: he anticipates the inevitability of a further exacerbation of social contradictions and is afraid of it, afraid that it will become fatal for the existing order. The June days and the workers' uprising exacerbated his fears. It is the fear of new revolutionary uprisings of the proletariat that prompts Merimee to accept the coup d'etat of Louis Bonaparte and come to terms with the establishment of a dictatorship in the country.
At the final stage of her literary activity, Merimee writes only a few short stories. Of course, in The Blue Room (1866), and in Juman (1868), and especially in Lokis (1869), we find glimpses of Merimee's refined artistic skill as a novelist. It is enough to point out the characteristic, memorable image of the German linguist on whose behalf the narration in “Lokis” is conducted. However, now this skill serves significant ideological purposes. In “Lokis,” however, we feel Merimek’s ardent and unchanging love for the world of popular ideas, feelings, and beliefs. And yet, in his latest short stories, Merimee sets primarily entertaining goals, strives to intrigue the reader with the image and play of the mysterious. These short stories are inferior in terms of artistic value to the writer’s previous achievements.
Merimee, the short story writer, significantly deepened the depiction of the inner world of man in literature. Psychological analysis in Merimee's short stories is inseparable from the disclosure of the social reasons that give rise to the characters' experiences. And in this direction, Merimee made remarkable discoveries that had significant historical and literary implications. Let us at least remember his small but classic short story “The Capture of the Redoubt” (1829). By creating this masterpiece of realistic art and anticipating the famous description of the Battle of Waterloo in Stendhal’s “The Abode of Parma,” Mérimée opened a completely new page in the history of battle descriptions. Mérimée depicted military operations in a completely different way than the romantics and classicists did: not from the point of view of an outside observer, admiring the picturesqueness and colorfulness of the majestic picture unfolding before him, and not from the generalized perspective that is revealed to the commander from his command post located on a hill. He reproduced the harsh and chaotic atmosphere of the battle as if from the inside, as it appears to the consciousness of an ordinary participant in the battle.
Unlike the romantics, Merimee did not like to go into lengthy descriptions of emotions. He reluctantly resorted to the help of internal monologue for this purpose. He preferred to reveal the characters' experiences through their gestures and actions. His attention in the short stories is focused on the development of action: he strives to motivate this development as succinctly and expressively as possible, to convey its internal tension.
The composition of Merimee's short stories is always carefully thought out and balanced. In his short stories, the writer, as a rule, does not limit himself to depicting the climax in the movement of the conflict. He willingly reproduces his backstory, sketches out concise, but rich in vital material, characteristics of his heroes.
In Merimee's short stories, as in his work in general, the satirical element plays a significant role. Merimee's satire in the short stories is emotionally more restrained than in his youthful works, say, in the Clara Gasoul Theater. His favorite weapon is not sarcasm, not satirical hyperbole, but irony, hidden, but, despite its allegorical, veiled, very caustic satirical grin. Mérimée applies it with particular brilliance, exposing the falsity, duplicity, and vulgarity of bourgeois morals (a clear example is the figures of Captain Ledoux, Chaverny, Madame de Piennes).
Merimee's short stories are the most popular part of his literary heritage. They have become an ever-living heritage of world culture. The best works of Mérimée the novelist played an important role in the development of French realistic literature of modern times. Having adopted the advanced traditions of French narrative prose of the 18th century, following the behests of Lesage and Prevost, Voltaire - the author of philosophical stories, and Diderot the novelist, Mériméne the short story writer acted as a bold innovator who cleared the way for the further conquests of Flaubert, Maupassant and Anatole France. Mérimée's work is one of the most brilliant pages in the history of French literature of the 19th century.

List of used literature

Prosper Merimee Novellas // Prosper Merimee Collected Works in 4 volumes. T. 2. – M.: Pravda, 1983.
Whipper Yu. Literary portraits. – M.: Literature, 1988.
Practical lessons in foreign literature / Ed. N. P. Michalsky. – M.: Education, 1981.
History of French literature. – M.: Literature, 1956.
Smirnov A. A. Prosper Merimee and his short stories. – In the book: Merimee P. Novella. – M.: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1968.

© Posting material on other electronic resources only accompanied by an active link

Test papers in Magnitogorsk, buy test papers, course papers on law, buy course papers on law, course papers at RANEPA, course papers on law at RANEPA, diploma papers on law in Magnitogorsk, diplomas on law at MIEP, diplomas and course papers at VSU, tests at SGA, master's theses in law in Chelgu.