Publisher's Synopsis
The emptiness and hypocrisy of bourgeois society and the power of money were depicted with irony and sarcasm in short stories and novellas written by M�rim�e in the 1830's and 1840's, including The Double Misunderstanding,"Arsene Guillot,"and "The Abb� Aubain."In the short stories "The Venus of Ille,""Colomba,"and "Carmen" (1845) the author focuses on the clash between bourgeois morality and primitive but more just moral norms.