Letters to an Unknown

Letters to an Unknown is a collection of letters from Prosper Mérimée to Jenny Dacquin, whom he was in a remote relationship with for the better part of their lives. Excerpt: «Frankness and truth are virtues seldom esteemed by women as desirable; rather are they qualities to be avoided. For this reason you regard me as a Sardanapalus, because I attended a ball at which the ballet girls of the Opera were present. You reproach me for that evening as if it were a crime, and you reproach me for commending those poor girls as if that were a still greater crime. I repeat it, give them wealth, and thereafter only their good qualities will be seen.»