Letters to an Unknown Girl

Some writers only permitted publication after their own death, sensitive perhaps to public scandal.  Prosper Mérimée’s “Lettres a une inconnue” was published in 1874, four years after his death.  It reveals he had a lifelong correspondence with a much younger woman, who turned out to be one Jenny Dacquin, that had begun as early as 1831.  They probably did not have an affair but who’s to say?  The title of Mérimée’s work is highly evocative, highly romantic.  Who doesn’t want to believe in a secret admirer?  As long as they don’t become obsessed…