Prosper Mérimée
- Peter Cogman (University of Southampton)
Mérimée was born in Paris on 18 September 1803 as the only child in a cultivated, free-thinking, anglophile family (his father Léonor Mérimée was taught drawing at the École polytechnique). The motto he later adopted, Μεμνησο απιστειν (“Remember to be distrustful”) is revealing: he preserved a timid and sensitive nature behind an asumed aloofness and formality. A voracious reader in a range of languages (Greek, Spanish, English, later Russian), he studied law in Paris (1819-23). From the age of 20 he mixed with painters and writers in liberal and Romantic salons, becoming (1822) a friend of Stendhal (in 1850 he circulated privately a pamphlet, H.
First published 30 June 2003
Citation: Cogman, Peter. "Prosper Mérimée". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 June 2003
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5015, accessed 30 July 2010.]
5015 Prosper Mérimée 1 Short Notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.