Exotic tales of mystery and history
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| Prosper Mérimée |
This collection of short stories by French author Prosper Mérimée was first published in English in 1903. The 12 stories it contains were originally published in French from 1829 to 1870. The title of the collection is a bit confusing. As one might expect, “The Abbé Aubain” is the title of one of Mérimée’s short stories. Mosaics, on the other hand is the title of a collection of short fiction by Mérimée published as Mosaïque in 1833. Half of the stories in this volume come from that collection. However, there are another five stories included here that have nothing to do with the Mosaics collection. That’s an important point to note because a few of these non-Mosaics stories happen to be among the best entries in the collection.
Mérimée is probably best known for his novella Carmen (not included here), upon which the opera of the same name, composed by Bizet, is based. Mérimée is a Romanticist in style. His stories often take place in exotic settings, which he depicts with encyclopedic cultural erudition. His stories frequently contain elements of horror, and at times approach the Gothic macabre atmosphere of Edgar Allen Poe. The English-language author that Mérimée’s stories most immediately call to mind, however, is the non-Sherlock Holmes work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as seen in such collections as Tales of Terror and Mystery. Both Conan Doyle and Mérimée had a fascination with mysticism and the occult, and both had a keen interest in antiquities, often basing a story of mystery and suspense around an ancient statue, vase, or curio. Mérimée was such a connoisseur of artifacts, in fact, that the French government made him inspector general of historical monuments.
To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with this collection at first. “The Abbé Aubain” is an epistolary story that is engaging enough for most of its length, but then falters with an anticlimactic conclusion, a problem that’s not unique to this entry. While Mérimée proves himself quite adept at building atmosphere and suspense, too many of the stories suffer from weak and abrupt endings. For example, in “Mateo Falcone,” perhaps the most renowned story in this volume, Mérimée goes to great lengths to develop intriguing characters while capturing the essence of Corsican country life. The story builds to a powerful and shocking climax, but then in the snap of the fingers it’s done, almost as if to say, “So what?” Next up, “The Vision of Charles XI” offers a chillingly spooky scene, then fizzles to a halt with a matter-of-fact explanation of what it symbolizes. “The Game of Backgammon” deliberately deprives the reader of an ending, as if Mérimée is taunting us. The one story from among the Mosaics selections that’s truly outstanding is “Tamango,” a thrilling and tragic drama set aboard a slave ship.
Despite its rocky start, the book redeems itself in its second half with three ingenious first-class chillers, loaded with suspense and dripping with Romantic ambience, that represent Mérimée at his best. In “The Venus of Ille,” an archaeologist goes on a sketching trip through the French region of Roussillon. In “Lokis,” a particularly superb tale, a philologist travels to a Lithuanian castle to translate a biblical text into an obscure dialect. In “The ‘Viccolo’ of Madam Lucrezia,” a young Frenchman ventures to Rome, where he becomes intimately familiar with centuries-old legends of Lucrezia Borgia. All three meet with the strange and unexpected, as does the reader who chooses to follow them. Mérimée doesn’t score a hit when every story, but when he does, one gets an enchanting thrill ride through some offbeat and arcane corners of history and art.
Stories in this collection
The Abbé Aubain
Mateo Falcone
The Vision of Charles XI
How We Stormed the Fort
Tamango
The Game of Backgammon
The Etruscan Vase
The Venus of Ille
Lokis
The Blue Chamber
The “Viccolo” of Madam Lucrezia
Djoûmane
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Belles Lettres
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| François Coppée |
This collection of French short fiction is the second book in a ten-volume series published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1898, entitled Stories by Foreign Authors. Three of the volumes in the series are devoted to the writers of France; this, being the second, is subtitled French II. Volume number two is even better than its predecessor, and may just be the best book in the entire series.
The tent-pole piece in this collection of five stories is Emile Zola’s “The Attack on the Mill.” Originally published in the 1880 French collection Les Soirées de Médan, this story was intended by Zola to be a sort of manifesto for his new literary school of Naturalism. During the Franco-Prussian War, the peaceful lives of a miller, his daughter, and her fiancé are violently interrupted when their picturesque mill in rural Lorraine suddenly becomes a battleground. The version of the story included here is its original incarnation, a decidedly bleak and unromantic picture of war, and thankfully not the later variation which was altered with a happily-ever-after ending.
I’m not familiar with the author François Coppée and have no idea if he had any association with Zola, but his story “The Substitute” reads like it could very well have been written by the father of Naturalism himself. After a life spent in and out of reform schools and prisons, committing petty crimes and paying for them, Jean François Letruc decides to turn his life around. This excellent story is even better than Zola’s entry, and would be perfect were it not for an ill-chosen title which gives too much of the story away.
And now for something completely different. “The Venus of Ille” by Prosper Mérimée is a horror story. An archaeologist on a sketching trip through the region of Roussillon, in southern France, pays a visit to a local resident who recently unearthed an ancient statue of a woman. The most puzzling aspect of this bronze goddess is that she is depicted not only with remarkable beauty but also with a mysterious vengeful quality. This piece is not as dark and chilling as the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, but bears more resemblance to some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of the uncanny. The story unfolds slowly, taking its sweet time, but it’s well worth the wait.
In addition to these three great selections, the collection is rounded out by two other solid entries. In “The Sempstress’ Story” by Gustave Droz, the title character recalls how a renowned physician saved the life of her sick child. There’s nothing special or surprising about this one; it’s just a well-told tale. “The Virgin’s God-Child” by Emile Souvestre is set in Douarnanez, a seaside town in Brittany. It resembles the works of Sir Walter Scott, as the author delves into Breton folklore and culture in a manner quite similar to Scott’s treatment of the Scottish highlands. Ultimately the atmosphere becomes more important than the story. Though I’ve had the good fortune to visit Douarnenez and enjoyed Souvestre’s vivid depiction of Brittany, this was my least favorite entry in the book.
Any lover of classic literature, particularly those with an interest in France and its history, will find this collection well worth their time. For those familiar with Zola and other A-list French authors, this book provides a good introduction to four lesser-known French writers who are definitely worthy of attention.
For some reason, neither Amazon nor Project Gutenberg offers ebook files of the French volumes in the Stories by Foreign Authors series, but they can be found for free at Wikisource.
Stories in this collection
The Substitute by François Coppée
The Attack on the Mill by Emile Zola
The Virgin’s God-Child by Emile Souvestre
The Sempstress’ Story by Gustave Droz
The Venus of Ille by Prosper Mérimée
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