Ｍａｔｔｅｏ Ｆａlｃｏｎｅ/ review

Ｍａｔｔｅｏ　Ｆａlｃｏｎｅ　ｂｙ Prosper Ｍｅｒｉｍｅｅ


Prosper Merimee who born 1803, French ｗａｓ a scholar of law, history, and also a member of the curia.

He wrote “ Carmen,” “ Colomba,” “ Matteo Falcone” and so on during his inspection tour.

The setting of “Matteo Falcone” is a small village in Corsica in the early 19th century.

Mateo was a shepherd and expert shooter.

When he was away, somebody came to his house seeking a place to stay and asked his young son to shelter. He gave the son

one silver coin.

Matteo’s son accepted the coin and sheltered him in piled straw. After that, some military policemen came and asked him

whether he saw the stranger or not.

At first, the boy said “ No,” but then one of the policeman took out a silver watch from his pocket and dangled it

in front of his face and said “ Don’t you want this?”

For a moment he didn’t move. Finally he took it and pointed the piled straw.

The policemen pulled the criminal out of the piled straw and lead him away.

Just at that moment , Matteo came back home and met them at the edge of his garden.

The criminal shouted to him “ This is the home of a rat. Your son is a rat”

Matteo saw the silver watch in his son’s hand and quickly understood what he had done.

He took his son to short far from his house and shot him against his wife’s pleading.

Matteo’s son was only ten years old and he was the yougest child , born after two sisters.


I was ten years old when I read this short story.

In those days, the most important things for me were how to posse everything in the whole departmentstore, and how to

conquer my fear of thunder . I had become bourgeois like everyone else.


So this shocking story made an air hole in my small mind.

Anyway, I understood that there are more important things than life or money in the world.

I never forget that “Matteo Falcone” is the first one which destroyed a synapse of nerve cell of brain.

Since I became an adulty, I learned that a lot of wanted men came into Corsica in those days, because the geographical

offered good hiding place .

Matteo had strong faith in his region I think.