Carmen by Prosper Mérimée.

fiction, drama, history · EN

Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. Carmen is a novella by the French author Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845 in the periodical Revue des deux Mondes and presented initially without indication that it was fiction, appearing instead as a travelogue account. The story is framed by an unnamed French scholar and archaeologist traveling in Andalusia in 1830, who encounters the outlaw Don José Navarro in the mountains, aids his escape, and later meets the charismatic Gypsy woman Carmen in Córdoba before hearing Don José's prison confession of his fateful obsession with her. Don José, a Basque soldier of noble origin, recounts how his encounter with Carmen in Seville drew him into smuggling, desertion, violence, and ultimately murder as their passionate but destructive relationship unfolds amid cultural clashes and personal jealousy. A fourth chapter, added in the 1846–1847 book editions, consists of an ethnographic essay on the physiognomy, customs, language, and supposed origins of th