Excerpt from Prosper Merimee's Letters to an Incognita Nature, the lingering disease to which he finally yielded, led him to look at men and things, especially during all the later years of his life, in a morbidly critical way 3 but that he was capable of loving ardently, these now famous Letters to an Incognita abundantly prove. Indeed, they show something even more remarkable than this; that the lover could settle down into the devoted friend, maintaining during a period of over thirty years, - for this singular correspondence extends from 1842 to 1870, the sincerest admiration for the woman for whom, at one time, Merimee cherished something more than a Platonic affection. As regards the identity of the Incognita' and the manner in which the publication of these letters was received in Paris, it is enough to quote the opening paragraphs from a paper suggested by them, which ap peared in the London Quarterly Review for January, 1874. The writer says: N o literary event since the war, has excited anything like such a sensation in Paris, as the publication of the Letters 21 une Inconnue. Even poli tics became a secondary consideration for the hour, and Academicians or Deputies of Opposite parties, might be seen eagerly accosting each other in the chamber or the street, to inquire who this fascinating and perplexing un. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.