SOURCE: "Theory of Significant Detail" and "Theory of Structure," in The Poetics of Prosper Mérimée, Mouton and Co., 1966, pp. 42-62 and 85-91.

In the following excerpt (with footnotes numbered continuously), Dale outlines Mérimeé's aesthetic theory.

Details were Mérimée's chief formal concern: he knew that he created his impressions "in the mind's eye" by means of a comparative accumulation of details; he also knew that he must rely heavily on details when he wanted to reconstruct that impression for a reader. Having observed the extent of his fascination for details, we may now see how they became the rallying point for the formal side of his poetics.

"[Your stories] sont trop courtes et on voudrait des détails", Mérimée advised the Princess Julie. "Donnezmoi des détails, beaucoup de détails, on ne saurait trop en donner."¹ Mérimée was...