New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-28
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MERIMEE's INooNNUE.'


Mat the world knows is ever likely TO know, OF
uerimees correspondent is comprised in his let
,ors IN her There have indeed been scepticS
audaeious enough to doubt her very existence,
and the arguments they have employed are not
wanting in paushlity. For say these doubters,
IL is well known that Prosper Mermee had
specjal fondness and aptitude for mystiiication.
His love for the pseudonomous did not carry him
SO far as il did his favorte literary model. Boyle
lStendhaI, but 1t carried him far: witness his
famous hoax of Clara Gazul,' and his later
justification of La Guzla" The man who could
do these things, il is pretended, could be capable
of preparing an insoluble riddle for the exaspera-
ton of posterity; and he artist enough TO make
the deception appear perfectly natural
H. is no doubt true that Merimee given 10
literary tricks of the kind referred 10, but IL Is
not credible that the letters TO Unknown are
ANYTHING but what they appear. The fact that
they were given 10 the world by the Unknown
herself IS perhaps not conclusive. Merimee IKE
BoIngbroke might have loaded blnnderbuss
which some one else was to fire when he was dead
Bat the character of the letters themselves is con-
elusive. for assuredlv of letters contem-
plating a mysttcation would have deliberately
put into a make-believe correspondence so much
which reveals personality, and of which so large
n proportion is unlatering TO the writer we
learn much more Of Merimee than OF lnconnue"
from these letters. Regarded from purely III
rrary point OF view they delightful Consld-
Fred as evidences of character, they exhibit many
traits of which the posseSsor had no cause 10 DE
proud. Merimee not Of an aiiectionate nature,
and nothing in his letters warrants the belief that
the feeling which lie entertained for the Unknown
was that of love. From the first this mysterious
woman piqued his curiosity and disturbed his
ifu self 10
ured her correctly in saying that she was one OF
those chilly women of the North She could
not be brought into the intimacy he so impatlenuv
desired. At first she excused herself by saying
that she was afraid of him. Then she told INN
that she was engaged 10 be married. Fifty Tunes
he threatened TO break oil the correspondence
because she SO obstinate in the maintenance
of her reserve, and often word from her rN-
stcd his chains anew.
They met but subsequently that at later
period Merimee declared that three four hours
represented the whole of their personal Intercourse
during six OF seven years. This is not exactly
true for the. letters show that they repeatedly
spent nearly whole days together. wandering about
The streets, in the museums, the gardens ut
Versailles. But il is certain that they really saw
very GtteAof another and it is not less clear
that after few years the never high temperature
of Merimees letters fall TO that of settled CON-
Portable friendship. Even from the beginning
he wrote TO her man wrote 10 a woman
he loved He addressed her with sharp re.
proaclses, criticised her character, found fault
with her temperament, accused her of coQue1ry
and hypocrisy and at intervals displayed veXed
and irritable impatience which shows that he WAS
really fascinated by being thus held at AIMS
length far more than he enemored of the
fair " Unknown But there is a GOODNESS her
i IL tn
sttutional. if not racial 1t is quite credible that
she really was what he called her" one of those
chilly women OF the North" for any expression
of genuine warmth appears TO have been absent
from her letters. if may judge from their re-
Fiction in his Mermee's interest in her the
years passed appears TO have centred upon the
analysis of her mind and the attempt-chancter
istic of the man-to indOctrnate her with his own
cynicisn. Her persistent resistance 10 this effort
at propag andism plainly annoyed him, and his
feeling finds expression in reprooc hes aimed her
prudery, her lack of observation, her indspostion
10 collect human documents for him Then, when
She goes TO Aleiefs he desires that, having the
opportunity to enter some Mahometan harems, she
shall make study of the women, and find ont
and tell him all about them Evidently she de-
clined this commission, and he roundly abused
her; but 1t just this contrariety and stub.
bornness in his friend that held him to her until
the correspondence had grown into Ia bit and
so established itself firmly
Now the author of this attempt 20 construct
the IncOnnue7 afresh ont Of Merimees letters
has written what may easily be considered very
clever book by those who have not made study
Of the letters themselves. IL is impossible 10
Judge raie work ntclliecntly or adequately with
out reading 10 in conjunction with Mermee' sI4et-
tiers When that is DONE however il becomes
a., al
Inconnue" has not rightly estimated her char
acter, as shown in Merimee'S letters 10 her He
no doubt. was egostic and pettish. irritable.
cynical and.snappish, and only just covering these
conspicuous defects with his wit and fine STYLE
But she also had faults which were the antipode,
of his and though tins brought them together
closer IL strengthens the probability that She was
when she pleased an extremely aggravsting per
son. despite her beaux yeuX." Yet She was not
the woman set forth in this book of answers 20
Merimees Letters, the friendship could not
have endured. For this woman notwithstanding
her fusome end far too frequent protestations of
love. Is as wrapped up in herself as was Merimee
IN three out Of four her alleged letters are
not answers TO his at all. Some catchword +
perhaps taken from one OF his letters 20 give an
appearance OF correspondence. but she does not
WHITE Of the topics he treats as a rule and scenes
and anecdotes are continually introduced by her
which are not reflected at all Ia his letters She
is altogether too emotional, moreover, The real
lnconnne' unquestionably self-contained
reserved, cool and well balanced That if any
thing, the letters Of Merimee make clear But
this false lnconnue' gushes like giddy school
girl at intervals and anon tries 10 assume =
severity and self-poSSeSsion totally incompatible
2jth hsr'amative indulgence elsewhere
The fact that An Authors Love- is written
In English of course helps to conceal the extent
of the difference between the styles of these and
Merimees letters: but we may be that so
strong linguiSt and such purist in style would
have had his teeth set on edge by many of the
expressions here employed and that if the In
connue' had ever written to him that something
was getting upon her nerves which atrocity