Prosper Merimee Prosper Mérimée (28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a Romanticist French writer and one of the forefathers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a well-known archaeologist and historian, as well as a pivotal role in achitectural preservation history. He is best known for his novella Carmen, which inspired Bizet's opera Carmen. He studied Russian, a language he adored, and translated the works of several prominent Russian authors, including Pushkin and Gogol, into French. He was the inspector of French historical monuments from 1830 to 1860, and was in charge of the protection of many historic structures, including the ancient stronghold of Carcassonne and the restoration of the façade of Notre-Dame de Paris. He found, with the novelist George Sand, the sequence of tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn and arranged for their preservation. He was involved in the establishment of the Musée National du Moyen Era in Paris, where the tapestries are presently housed. His name appears on the official database of French monuments, the Base Mérimée. Read More Read Less