Colomba
by Prosper Mérimée 1803–1870
The book, and the century it came out of.
Translated by Mary Loyd
A young Corsican lieutenant comes home from the French army to find his sister has kept the vendetta warm for both of them — his father was shot from behind a wall, and Colomba knows exactly who did it and what a brother is for. Mérimée was inspector-general of historical monuments for twenty years and saved Vézelay and Carcassonne from ruin; he wrote Corsica after a tour of inspection, and the maquis in this book is a legal institution. Illustrated with 55 full-page plates — paintings by Mechau, Hackert and Le Roy among them.
At the Hotel Beauveau Miss Lydia met with a bitter disappointment.
Colomba, by Prosper Mérimée, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Salon & Steppe
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 152 pages
- Reading time
- about 3 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Translation
- Mary Loyd
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486901652
55 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Colomba, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Salon & Steppe shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486901652, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Colomba?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Prosper Mérimée's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 152 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
