Prosper Mérimée was an interesting dude. Throughout his life, he was, among other things, an archeologist, a historian, a government appointed inspector of French historical monuments for thirty years, an advisor to Emperor Napoleon III, a Senator, and a translator of Russian literature. He spearheaded the restoration of Notre-Dame catherdral, discovered and preserved one of the greatest pieces of medieval tapestry currently known, founded Paris’ Musée national du Moyen Âge (still in operation today), and created the seminal french translation of several of Russia’s greatest writers, including Pushkin and Gogol.
In addition to these many roles, he was also a writer. Though his name has been largely forgotten outside of literary circles, during his life he rivaled Victor hugo for prominenc,e and counted among France’s most popular writers. He became famous for his unadormed style, almost proto-Hemingwayan in its plainspoken precision and focus on detail over imagery. His best-remembered work is probably Carmen, though unfortunately for his posterity it is known mainly from the opera by Georges Bizet. Or at least, this is my impression; it's possible that in France he remains a household name.
The stories included in Quatre Contes are a mixture of adventure and romanticism. The first story is set in Corsica and paints it as a wild and lawless backwoods where honor is more important than everything else, even family. The second story recounts a slave-selling African's unfortunate capture by and escape from a slave ship. This one was the strongest of the four, and contained some bits of biting irony against the high-minded slavers, who considered the smallest concessions to basic decency, such as giving slaves an hour above deck a day, as signs of their benevolence. The third story was a war story, and somewhat disjointed. The last was actually a translation of a story by Pushkin, bu the editor felt its elegant style merited inclusion. All were told in an engaging and plainspoken style that I certainly appreciated, as despite the age of the stories they were much easier for a non-Francophone to grasp than other, more recent works I’ve encountered. I will certainly read other stories by him in the future.