Turgenev’s correspondence with Valentine Delessert

This one-sided correspondence (thirty-nine letters from 1861 to 1882) should have proven relevant for acquainting readers more intimately with Mérimée. He appears to us in the unusual role of matchmaker, reincarnating two of his characters (Mme de Piennes and Arsène Guillot) in the guise of Valentine Delessert and Paulinette Turgeneva: generosity then, on the part of Prosper, but also Valentine, and extended gratitude from Paulinette's father for a miraculously regained fatherhood.