Prosper Merimee

That polymath Frenchman's felicitous name is always a great attention-getter, I find. I drop it at cocktail parties all the time. Dave Lull has pointed out a wonderful appreciation of him by Julian Barnes. A writer of outre and outrageous fiction (including the novella upon which Bizet based his opera, Carmen) he should, Barnes tells us be as well-known as a protector of French architectural history.