born Sept. 28, 1803, Paris, France
died Sept. 23, 1870, Cannes
French short-story writer and dramatist.
In youth a student of languages and literatures, he wrote his first play, Cromwell (1922), at age 19. His passions were mysticism, history, and the unusual. His stories, often mysteries, were inspired mainly by Spanish and Russian sources, notably Aleksandr Pushkin ; they include Mateo Falcone (1829), the collection Mosaïque (1833), and the novellas Colomba (1840) and Carmen (1845), the basis of Georges Bizet 's opera. He also wrote works of history and archaeology, historical fiction, and literary criticism and carried on correspondences that were published posthumously. He became a senator in 1853.