Carmen

by Prosper Merimee

Overview

Carmen—the inspiration for one of the world’s most popular operas—is a story about the dark forces that lurk beneath the façade of civilization, where passions are brutal and erotic love is seductive and sinister. When Don José meets a gypsy woman, he has no idea that his chance encounter with the “pretty witch” will have disastrous consequences. With her magic and her malevolent spirit, Carmen exerts a powerful charm on the unsuspecting Don José, who is drawn into a seedy underworld of bandits and smugglers—exploited and humiliated, until he is driven to the ultimate revenge. In Carmen, Prosper Mérimée introduced a literary archetype: the femme fatale, who uses her sexuality and mystery to ensnare and ultimately destroy the weak, unsuspecting man. It appears here with The Venus of Ille, a brilliant tale of the supernatural. Prosper Mérimée is a noted French novelist, playwright, and short story writer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781975911768
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	08/29/2017
Pages:	106
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Prosper Mérimée was born into a family of artists in Paris in 1803. He studied law and languages in school, and in 1825, he published his first book, Le Théâtre de Clara Gazul—a purported translation of plays written by a Spanish actress and translated by one Joseph L’Estrange. He followed this up with another “translation” of a selection of folk ballads under the title La Guzla. No less a personage than Pushkin was convinced, quoting a few of the ballads in his own work. In 1834, Mérimée was appointed inspector-general of historical monuments, a job for which he was uniquely suited with his linguistic and scholarly skills. He successfully led a protest movement to save the medieval walled city of Carcassonne from destruction and, with his friend George Sand, rediscovered the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries lying neglected in a provincial château. On a journey to Spain he became friendly with the Countess of Montijo, whose daughter Eugénie would marry Napeleon III. When the emperor acceded to the throne, Mérimée was made a senator. His correspondence with such figures as Stendhal and Anthony Panizzi, the librarian of the British Museum, was legendary for its wit and intelligence, and Mérimée’s novellas on historical and supernatural themes, including Colomba and La Vénus D’Ille, are some of the finest of the romantic era. He died in 1870 in Cannes.

George Burnham Ives (1856–1930) also translated the work of George Sand and Honoré de Balzac.

Editorial Reviews

Carmen—the inspiration for one of the world’s most popular operas—is a story about the dark forces that lurk beneath the façade of civilization, where passions are brutal and erotic love is seductive and sinister.

From the Publisher