All the critics agree that these short stories are masterpieces which will remain classics. They contain no lengthy descriptions. There are no reflections, dissertations or explanations in them. They bring out in relief only the permanent features of a given situation, features interesting and intelligible to men of other ages and climes. They are lucid and well constructed. Their plots turn about a simple action with unique effect. Their style is alert, urbane, discreet, and rich, seeking its effect only through concrete and simple means. They deal but very slightly with lyrical emotion, they deal with passions and the will. Mérimée reached his climax in 1840 with "Colomba". Sainte-Beuve calls it a perfect story and points out various analogies between Sophocles' "Electra" and Mérimée's heroine. It was published in book form in 1841, together with the "Vénus d'Ille" and "Les Ames du purgatoire", which had, like "Colomba", first appeared in the "Revue des Deux Mondes", the former in 1837 and the latter in 1834. As the days of romanticism become numbered, Mérimée ceases his original production. In 1846, with the publication of a volume containing "Carmen", "Arsène Guillot" and "L'Abbé Aubain", he takes leave of the novel-reading public, and when twenty years later he takes up his pen again with "La chambre bleue" and "Lokis", the first of which was written in 1866 for the empress and the second of which first appeared in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" in 1869, the author shows no longer the faultlessness of "L'Enlèvement de la redoute" or of "Colomba".