PROSPER MÉRIMÉE
Paris, 1803-Cannes, 1870
Mérimée was at first identified with the Romantic movement, but his hatred of exaggeration and his cynicism caused him to turn to a simpler manner. His clear, concise narrative style and his objective manner of treatment, combined with a grasp of human character, pathos, delicate analysis, satire and an ability to portray local color and to omit non-essentials may be said to be his chief characteristics. His test work is seen in the short stories and in the nouvelles.
Important works (the dates refer to the year of publication): Théâtre de Clara Gazul (1825), La Jacquerie (1828), Chronique du Règne de Charles IX (1829), Nouvelles (including: Tamango, Colomba, Vénus d'Ille, and other shorter stories; from 1830 to 1841), Carmen (1847), Lokis (1869), Dernières Nouvelles (1873); besides works on travel, history, archeology, literature and translations (especially from the Russian). L'Enlèvement de la Redoute was written in 1829 (for La Revue Française) and Le Coup de Pistolet in 1856 (for Le Moniteur).
Edition: Calmann Lévy.
Criticism: Advanced students should consult Lanson, Histoire de la littérature française (Hachette, Paris); others may consult Wright's History of French Literature (Oxford Press). Bibliographies may be found in both of these works, further details can be found in the special bibliographies published by Lanson and by Thieme.
L'ENLÈVEMENT DE LA REDOUTE
[1.]--1. un militaire de mes amis. Compare un de mes amis, a friend of mine; un mien ami also occurs in popular style. Mérimée refers to Henri Beyle (Stendhal), French novelist and soldier under Napoleon, by whom this story was related to him (1783-1843).
8. après avoir lu. Note the use of the perfect infinitive, not the present, after après.
9. général B * * *. General Berthier, Major-General of Napoleon's army which invaded Russia; he became Prince and Marshal of France (1753-1815).--il changea de manières. De is used after changer when the object is changed for another of the same kind (if the object is preceded by a modifier, such as a possessive pronoun, changer alone is used).
15. sa croix. The cross of the Legion of Honor; the cross is not usually worn, but in its stead a small bow of ribbon.
21. école de Fontainebleau. The reference is not to the present military school (artillery and engineers) at Fontainebleau, which was founded in 1871, but to the school which was moved from there to Saint-Cyr in 1806, and which corresponds to the school at West Point in the United States.
[2.]--5. Cheverino. «Le 5 septembre un combat se livra pour la possession d'une redoute russe sur le tertre de Chévardino, et fit perdre aux Français 4 ou 5000 hommes, aux Russes 7 ou 8000. Il annonçait du moins que les Russes avaient pris position et se disposaient, pour sauver leur capitale, à livrer bataille.» Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire générale du IVe siècle à nos jours, vol. IX, p. 787. The battle of Borodino, known also as the battle of the Moscova, was fought two days later, September 7, 1812, and Napoleon arrived at Moscow on September 14. On account of the other references in the text to Napoleon the following note may be found convenient.--Born in Corsica in 1769, he first distinguished himself by driving the English from Toulon (1793). He became General-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, and won the celebrated battles of Arcola (1796), Rivoli (1797), etc.; became First Consul in 1799 and Emperor in 1804; victor in the battles of Austerlitz (1805), Iéna (1806), Eylau (1807), Friedland (1807), Wagram (1809), he became the ruler of western Europe. He led the Grande-Armée into Russia in 1812-1813, and never recovered from this disastrous campaign. Europe rose against him; he was deposed in 1814 and sent to the Island of Elba, whence he escaped to France in 1815 and ruled, during the Hundred Days, until he was finally defeated at Waterloo, June 18, 1815. Banished to Saint Helena, he died there in 1821.
12. auprès duquel. Auprès de expresses a relation nearer than that expressed by près de.
14. il en coûtera bon. En is often added to coûter when the latter is used impersonally.
[3.]--5. la fatigue l'avait emporté. In this idiom the pronoun refers to an unexpressed noun (prix, choix, etc.).
25. aussitôt que l'ordre...eut été donné. The past anterior is a literary tense; it is used to express completed action after certain temporal conjunctions and à peine...que, also with encore, plus tôt, sitôt, when they are negative and followed by que and when the period of time is mentioned (il eut bientôt fait son devoir); in all these cases the pluperfect is used if the action is repeated. The past anterior is not used in conversation.
30. éprouvasse. The imperfect subjunctive is a literary tense and is to be avoided in conversation; it may be so avoided by using the present subjunctive and thus violating the rule for the sequence of tenses or by using a circumlocution (particularly obnoxious to a Frenchman's ear are all the forms of this tense in the first conjugation, except the third person singular).
[4.]--4. madame de B * * *. Possibly Mérimée was thinking cf his friend Madame la comtesse de Beaulaincourt, with whom he corresponded. The Revue des Deux Mondes (August 15, 1879) published a collection of eleven letters written to her by Mérimée (see also Filon, Mérimée et ses Amis, 2e éd., Paris, 1909). More probably he refers to Madame de Boigne, who lived in the street mentioned; he used to read his stories in her Salon.
7. en voir de grises. For the use of a feminine adjective referring to no expressed noun compare: j'ai échappé belle, I had a narrow escape; il se remit à courir de plus belle, he began to run harder than ever, etc. The feminine adjective in such phrases cannot always be explained by saying that manière, occasion, chose, etc., have been omitted. Similar phrases occur in Italian, Spanish, Old French and Romanian. Meyer-Lübke, Grammaire des langues romanes, vol. III, § 88, suggests res, causa, or a similar substantive as omitted in the primitive Latin construction. In certain French phrases the reference seems to be to balle, an expression borrowed from play--donner la balle belle, then la donner (or bailler) belle à quelqu'un, to impose on anyone.
30. ajouta-t-il. The letter t which occurs in such interrogative forms is not introduced for the sake of euphony, nor is it a survival of the Latin t of the third person. It arose by analogy with such forms as est-il, sont-ils, donnent-ils, where the letter forms a part of the verb.
[6.]--7. au travers de. Au travers should always be followed by de, à travers should never be followed by de; the meaning is the same in each case.
18. que je l'entendis prononcer. Although the second verb has an object, the object of entendre need not be in the indirect form; with faire in this construction the object of faire must be Indirect.
[7.]--1. je n'ai presque plus. Notice that presque is placed between plus (pas, rien, etc.) and the verb.
26. le général C * * * va vous faire soutenir. Vous is the object of soutenir, but in this construction the pronoun object of the second verb is regularly placed in front of faire. General Compans was in command of two regiments at the assault of the Redoubt, he was one of Napoleon's distinguished generals; he was made a prisoner at Waterloo and afterwards became a peer when the Bourbons were restored (1767-1845).
LE COUP DE PISTOLET
[8.]--19. je ne sais quel. Note the omission of pas in this phrase which stands for quelque; note also the omission of pas after savait in the next sentence (see also note to p. 201, 1. 13).
[9.]--18. personne... n'eût fait. The imperfect and the pluperfect subjunctive sometimes occur in conditional sentences contrary to fact, but only in literary style.
22. lui demandait-on s'il s'était battu, il répondait... que oui. Si is avoided in the first clause by means of inversion, otherwise two successive clauses introduced by si would occur; que is used before oui because oui substitutes a clause (il s'était battu); notice that no elision occurs before oui.
31. tous. When tous is used without a following noun, s is Pronounced.
[12.]--14. celui-là. The meaning here is "still another" or "a third."
25. précipitamment. This is not an exception to the rule that -ment is added to the feminine form of the adjective to form the adverb; adjectives having only two terminations in Latin, that is, those that had the same form for the masculine and feminine (grandis, etc.) had the same form for both the masculine and feminine in Old French; précipitant is both masculine and feminine in Old French and becomes with the addition of -ment précipitamment by assimilation (see also note to p.87, l. 17).
[13.]--4. il la fit partager à toute la compagnie. Compagnie is the direct object of fit.
[14.]--1. R... Mérimée uses both this form of abbreviation and the form which occurs on p. 1, l .9 (cf. also p. 17, l. 26). 16.--7. de n'avoir pas. Pas is usually placed before the infinitive.
[18.]--12. dépit... des pires. Mérimée tries to reproduce a Russian pun by means of a play on these words. He gives the following note: «Il y a, dans le russe un jeu de mots impossible à traduire: sdelatsa pianitseiou s'goria, t. c. samym gorkim pia nitseiou.»
[20.]--24. il y a bien quatre ans que je n'ai touché. Note that while pas is omitted in this phrase it is used below (p. 21, l. 27) in voilà cinq ans que je n'en ai pas eu; compare also: il y a cinq ans que je me mariai (p. 22, l. 18), where there is no negative idea.
[21.]--10. prendre son verre d'eau-de-vie avant la soupe. Mérimée gives the following note: «C'est l'usage en Russie de prendre de l'eau-de-vie un peu avant le diner.»
[22.]--6. serait-ce vous. The conditional here expresses uncertainty; it should be rendered in English by "could" not by "would."
[24.]--14. reviens-nous. Note the use of the indirect object (instead of à nous) with a verb of motion.