Carmen and Other Stories

by Prosper Mérimée, Nicholas Jotcham (Translator)

One of the earliest exponents of the short story, Prosper Mérimée wrote the universally-acclaimed tale Carmen, which provided the basis for one of the world's most popular operas. In addition to this classic tale, the book includes Colomba, Mateo Falcone, The Storming of the Redoubt, Tamango, The Etruscan Vase, The Game of Backgammon, The Venus of Ille and Lokis.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, France, Fiction, French Literature, 19th Century, Romance

400 pages, Paperback

Published April 22, 1999

About the author

Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.

Mérimée loved mysticism, history, and the unusual, and may have been influenced by Charles Nodier (though he did not appreciate his works), the historical fiction popularised by Sir Walter Scott and the cruelty and psychological drama of Aleksandr Pushkin. Many of his stories are mysteries set in foreign places, Spain and Russia being popular sources of inspiration.

In 1834, Mérimée was appointed to the post of inspector-general of historical monuments. He was a born archaeologist, combining linguistic faculty of a very unusual kind with accurate scholarship, with remarkable historical appreciation, and with a sincere love for the arts of design and construction, in the former of which he had some practical skill. In his official capacity he published numerous reports, some of which, with other similar pieces, have been republished in his works.
He was also responsible for several translations of Pushkin and Gogol, when they weren't known in Europe yet.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dec 1, 942am ~~ Review asap. Dramatic stories, interesting author.

Dec 3, 645pm ~~ I chose this book to be able to read the story Carmen, which inspired Bizet's Opera of the same name. I was also able to watch the 1984 film version of the opera right after finishing the story, which helped me see the differences between the two. The opera has some added elements, and had changed a few things, but both are quite dramatic, and of course Carmen herself is unforgettable.

But as much as I liked Carmen, I chose a different story as my favorite from this collection. That was Colomba, a long tale set in Corsica. Columba is the sister of the main male character, who has returned to his homeland after many years of being in Europe. Everyone, including Columba, expects him to perform a vendetta killing against the family who is believed to be responsible for the killing of his father. But he no longer believes in the need for such revenge killings and struggles against his so-called duty. Columba is a strong, fierce and sometimes cruel woman, told by her brother at one time that she would have made an excellent soldier. But is she also merely a slave to the bloodthirsty traditions of her country? I still have not decided about that.

Another excellent story which produced a gut-punch I was not at all expecting, was the 1829 tale titled Mateo Falcone. Mateo was a man in Corsica and one day he and his wife go off to inspect a flock of sheep, leaving their ten-year old son at home. What happens while they are gone is intense, but what Mateo does when he returns home is the reason for the story's traumatic punch.

The introduction in this book gives background for each story, telling what inspired PM to write each one. There is also some interesting information about the author, a fairly complex character on his own, who gave up on writing fiction to focus on books and papers about architecture and history, part of his job as Inspector-General Of Historic Monuments, a post he held from 1834 to 1860. Can't help but wonder what other amazing stories he would have written if he had not made that decision.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love bad bitches, that's my fuckin' problem
- Prosper Mérimé-... er, A$AP Rocky

Mérimée loves bad bitches. Namely Carmen, Colomba, and the statuesque Venus d'Ille - the heroine-antagonist-exotics of his best stories in this collection. More generally, Mérimée is fascinated in his fiction by the clash between the civil and the savage. A champion of the ruffian hero, Mérimée's stories notably take place outside of his native France, in Spain, Italy, the sea: places which to him are still imbued with mystery and mysticism. Mérimée was an early exponent of the short-story as a true literary form, and though some of his stories are a bit uneven (notably, his most famous "Carmen"), they are exemplary of the form which has become almost universal to literary authors, and went began the tradition later perfected by Guy de Maupassant.

While I would argue that "Colomba" is the better-crafted story, albeit much longer, Mérimée's "Carmen" has lasted the test of time, notably immortalized by Bizet into an opera by the same name. "Carmen" nonetheless is a captivating illustration of love, crime, violence, and the Mériméan clash between civility and savagery. As a strong influence on Lolita, notably in the strange blur between love and Machiavellian seduction-deceit, and also in the tale-told-from-prison frame, "Carmen" is both provocative and unreliable in narration. The story follows a traveller from France, a sort of literary stand-in for Mérimée on his travels in Spain, when he happens upon a ruffian, Don José, and helps him escape the authorities. He later finds him again, as the lover of a beautiful gypsy, Carmen. They separate again, and the next time they meet, Don José is in prison, having murdered his love.

Though the story is quite good, Carmen is more famous and more memorable than her titular tale. The story serves more to romanticize and immortalize the exotic allure of the gypsies than it does to make a memorable story. Carmen has become symbolic of jealous love, an early adumbration of Tolstoy's "Kreuntzer Sonata." Don José's love for Carmen seems tenuous, we wonder how real the love can be, being one-sided as it is. It is not clear how Carmen feels about the Don, we hear about her mostly from his perspective, though it seems that her affection for him is largely sexual pragmatism. But that may be from a difference in view of love: while love is typically perceived in the Western-civilized tradition of love-of-my-life devotion, Carmen's love is like a bird, alighting only for odd moments on the men in her life, a love which is passionate and full, free of jealousy, pure, but which is short-lived.

'Yes, I have loved him—as I loved you—for an instant—less than I loved you, perhaps. But now I don't love anything, and I hate myself for ever having loved you.'
I cast myself at her feet, I seized her hands, I watered them with my tears, I reminded her of all the happy moments we had spent together, I offered to continue my brigand’s life, if that would please her. Everything, sir, everything—I offered her everything if she would only love me again.
She said: 'Love you again? That's not possible! Live with you? I will not do it!'

Carmen is a free spirit, but traditionally defined love is a shackle, a cage, which she feels suffocated by. She loves in the moment, but José demands eternity from her. Despite Carmen's deceptions and tricks, her crimes and abandonments, we sympathize with her, much moreso than with the Don. Carmen has a freedom which we all envy, but which we consciously let elude us. We are afraid of the kind of freedom and detachment which Carmen needs to live. Despite his rough exterior, José is far more civilized and chained to tradition than Carmen, and we see him at the end not as a hidalgo, but as a modern man, given up to his passions, but afraid to follow them to their fruition. While he represented as an early symbol of freedom, to the narrator on his travels, a kind of idealized and Romantic figure, he is reduced at the end to a prisoner. The prison is symbolic of his own imprisonment, he self-styled cage of his conventions and expectations, which withhold him from true happiness in the moment with Carmen. Though Carmen is murdered, it feels to us like a freer and more appropriate fate for her than marriage, which seems to us impossible.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read a story, I will write the review under the title. This Kindle version is fantastic with footnotes and easy navigation which is important to Kindle readers.

[Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3Mn...

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I had scheduled myself to do some reading of Prosper Mérimée's short fiction - a French writer who contributed to the development of the short story, and is most famous in Western culture for having written the source material from which Bizet's opera CARMEN originated. In the area of supernatural and weird fiction he's an indistinct figure, noted for having written "The Venus of Ille" and the semi-ursinanthropic "Lokis" (Both are present here, the latter being a first read for me). As the excellent introduction notes, he seems to have abandoned his early writing career for his interests as a historian and his civil service position (it was his job to travel all over France inspecting and restoring historical monuments). Of the nine stories here I had notes to read (or re-read in two cases) five of them, so off we go....

"Carmen" features a jailhouse confession by one don José as to what led him to his criminal life after starting as a mere Spanish soldier - the pursuit of the love a gypsy woman named Carmen turns out to be behind it all. It's an interesting romance/adventure in Romantic mode, and essentially a femme fatale story (with the qualities of such coming from Carmen's gypsy background: she is painted as both passionate and devil-may-care, but also morally suspect, fickle and engaging in various folk-magic beliefs of the Romany). Those who need stories written in 1845 to inexplicably follow modern conceptions of racial equality and representation should just quit before starting - as "Carmen", in the midst of all of its brigandry and tales of robbery, smuggling and violence, can be seen by modern eyes as an encapsulation of the projections onto (and attraction to) "the Other" - here the supposedly shifty, untrustworthy, self-involved and amoral Romany people. It's not an amazing story (large sections seem written as exposition) but certainly involving, not just for its moving and powerful murderous finale - there are also little splashes of local color, festivals (the women river bathing after sunset in Córdoba), bullfighting lore, slang, folklore (the "head of Pedro" footnote) and food that make the whole enjoyable. Oxford also supplies the later-composed "Fourth Chapter" in an appendix - which just turns out to be Mérimée's rather dry compilation of "facts" about the "Gypsy people" (seemingly to provide context for the preceding story).

The respected and powerful patriarch of a Corsican home (nearby where bandits sequester themselves from searches by hiding in an impenetrable valley), "Mateo Falcone," leaves his young son at home while he and his wife inspect the flocks, but a fugitive from the law appears, demanding to be hidden and offering the boy a silver coin for a good hiding place. But when the local gendarmes arrive in pursuit, the boy must decide between keeping the fugitive's secret or accepting the even more appealing bribe the soldiers offer for information on their prey's whereabouts, little suspecting his father's reaction when he returns and discovers the boys actions... According to the introduction, Walter Pater called this "perhaps the cruelest story in the world" and it certainly is dark, as an unflinching look at how the rural regions would carry the concept of personal and family honor to murderous heights. Short, pithy, brutal and effective.

An antiquarian comes to visit a landholder near the village of Ille to consult with him about local landmarks, finding M. de Peyrehorade engaged by two separate events. First, his boorish son is about to marry a wealthy woman (more for the money than love), and two, some local digging in an orchard on his land has turned up a copper statue of Venus that was buried. "The Venus of Ille," though, proves to be bad luck - one peasant has his leg broken while excavating the statue, and a young roustabout - on chucking a rock at the icon - finds the missile ricochets and strikes him in the head. But when young Peyrehorade places his intended wedding ring on the statue while he plays a racquet game, the hand inexplicably closes, "marrying" him to the fierce and mischievious Goddess of love, with events culminating on the young man's wedding night. This, like "Mateo Falcone," was a reread for me - and I'd forgotten what an effective little story it is - nicely paced and narrated, with some resonances and details about wedding rituals and folklore of the time, not to mention the interesting implication of the Goddess of Love taking revenge on a crude suitor and his avaricious matrimonial plans.

In "Colomba", Colonel Sir Thomas Nevil and his adult daughter Lydia, visiting Italy from Ireland, find the country boring and so choose to travel to Corsica where the Colonel can do some hunting. Onboard the boat, they meet Orso della Rebbia, a young solider returning to his home after years away. Orso befriends the pair, beginning a flirtation with Lydia, and they are met on arrival by Orso's fiery sister Colomba. As it turns out, Corsica's tradition of vendetta has placed Orso in a difficult position - his sister and much of his home town expect him to revenge himself on the town's mayor for the death of his father, but Orso has learned the sophisticated ways of the continent, does not think the Mayor was directly responsible for his father's death, and feels he cannot take revenge (though this would cast him as a coward and disappointment to the locals and his sister). But, surrounded by a country rife with casual violence, and expectations of more, Orso finds that escaping these expectations may be more difficult than he had planned... This is a long novella (or short novel) and takes up the bulk of this book. It is involving, with lots of local color, distinct characters (robust bandits and our titular female being the most striking) and some interesting conflict about the "backwards" traditions of rural violence versus the more cultured ways of European civilization (I laughed at a bit where Orso realizes that instead of ambushing the Mayor's sons he could just challenge them to a duel, although the Corsicans don't follow that tradition). Our titular character is interesting - not exactly a femme fatale, but passionate and conniving in turn. Sadly, while it builds with some complexity, the finale is not as satisfying - not terrible, but it just seems to ignore a number of interesting conflicts it had been setting up. Still, in the introduction (read after reading the story), it is noted that the ending (a coda that follows the resolution of the story) "remains almost without parallel in all literature for sheer venom" and this is true, it's a nasty little fillip that reinforces the scenes of implied and actual violence we have encountered earlier, reminding us that the drives of passion, prejudice and barbarism that arise from local "tradition" will not be settled easily. Good stuff!

Finally, in "Lokis", a German professor, tasked with translating the Bible into the Low Lithiuanian language, is invited to the castle of Count Szémioth to access some rare rural Lithuanian texts in his library. He finds the Count a friendly but troubled man: the Countess (Szémioth's mother) has been mad since giving birth to him 20 years ago, following a near fatal bear attack. But as the Professor is welcomed into the milieu (including the Count's flirtation with an elfish, frivolous local coquette), he finds the Count prone to strange and inexplicable, bestial passions - even as he plans to marry his love. Like a folklore tale cast into modern times, "Lokis" has some striking moments - the Professor spies the Count observing him, at night, from a tree; the Count has nightmare fits and waking thoughts of violent passion - and the expected local color (party games, the recitation of a folktale, wedding customs and the appearance of a local beggar-woman/witch who converses with her familiar, a black snake). And, following the horrific wedding night climax (mirroring "The Venus of Ille") - there is not much more to say. An enigmatic, effective little story that seems to be playing off that 19th Century belief that pregnant women "imprint" disturbing sights onto their unborn children (as in "a horse nearly trampled your mother when she was pregnant with you, which is why you have a horse-face"). Worth reading.

Interestingly, the introduction discusses the fact that Mérimée's reputation and legacy is questioned by scholars. On the one hand, he didn't write much and has a way of composing many of his stories that almost seem to deliberately include a self-critical aspect. On the other, he pruned away a lot of the extraneous flourishes of Romanticism, often striving for a lean effect that predicts the later development of short fiction. The stories I've noted here are all certainly worth your time.

[Lukáš Palán · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonžur.

Prosper Merime byl úspěšný bagetový spisovatel a proto se podle něj dodnes říká "prosperovat." Mezi jeho nejúspěšnější valby patří Carmen, která je o čmafítě ze Španělska, která umí špiónovat, krást, ale hlavně - je veselá mezi nohama. Do svého pohlavního televarieté postupně stáhne i Chosého Tortillu de la Nachos (možná si to jméno nepamatuji přesně, milý čtenáři), který se omámen její krásou vydá na dráhu zločinu. Bonnie a Clyde dos Burritos Churos tak úspěšně okrádají bohaté anglány, možná ještě efektivněji, než číšníci a taxikáři v Praze, ale bohužel, láska, zločin, žárlivost a cigánská krev jde dohromady jako já, Becherovka a záchod - a tam vždy dojde ke katastrofě.

8/10

Další povídky byly taky slušný, především proto, že v nich Prosper kácel postavy jako v nějakým hororu. To je na těch starších knížkách to nejlepší, všichni umřou. Bezpochyby jedna z nejlepších lidských vlastností.

Celkově 7/10

[kingshearte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first in a line of modern masters of the short story, Prosper Mérimée (1803-70) wrote about the dark forces at work beneath civilization's thin veneer.

In Carmen (1845), the tale from which Bizet's famous opera was drawn, Mérimée created a classic literary type: the femme fatale, who exploits her sexuality and air of mystery to ensnare and ultimately destroy the unwary. Like Carmen, his other 'long' tale, Colomba, mingles violent action and local colour with an ironic narrative style; Colomba herself is a protagonist of chilling power even greater perhaps than Carmen's.

This selection includes five short stories written in 1829-30, chosen to show Mérimée's supreme ability to explore the contrast between primitive and civilized values. In Mateo Falcone, a Corsican's conception of honour forces him to exact a ruthless revenge; The Storming of the Redoubt describes an incident in Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign; Tamango depicts a revolt of Negro slaves; The Etruscan Vase is a tale of passionate jealousy set in Paris; The Game of Backgammon is a study in fatal remorse.

Mérimée's own favourite among his stories, The Venus of Ille, is a brilliant tale of the supernatural; Lokis, the last story in this selection, is set in the forests of Lithuania and represents the fiction Mérimée wrote in old age.

OK, well, let's do this in the order presented above.

Carmen: I wasn't really that enamoured with either her or the story. I didn't find her that enthralling, and the dude wasn't that sympathetic, either. I seem to recall that in the opera, he actually kills her in a passionate moment of frenzy, right outside the bullring, and I think that's a better way than the almost calm, matter-of-fact way he does it in the original. I'm really not doing so well lately on originals vs. adaptations here...

Colomba: I liked this one. I don't know that I would necessarily go so far as to say that Colomba has "chilling power," but I liked her better than I liked Carmen, and I liked the whole story better too. It didn't end quite the way I expected, either, wich is always kind of fun. This was the second-last story in the collection, and up to that point, they'd all ended badly, so I was entirely expecting this one too as well. Things mostly worked out OK, though, so that was kind of nice, as I actually liked the characters, and was pleased to see things turn out for them.

Mateo Falcone: Didn't leave much of an impression on me. There was honour and ruthless revenge, and that was that.

The Storming of the Redoubt: This one was very short, and I'm not too sure what the point was. It was more like a short battle scene out of a larger context.

Tamango: Stories about slaves are always a little sad, although frankly, I feel a little less sad about the fate of a guy who makes a living selling his own people into slavery. The sense of futility was quite well conveyed though, with the slaves successfully managing to overthrow their captors, only to realize that they have no sea skills, leading to their getting lost at sea and ultimately all dying anyway. Dying free, I guess, which is perhaps an improvement over the alternative, but dying of starvation and dehydration is really never good, no matter what angle you look at it from.

The Etruscan Vase: This one did not end well, and that made me sad, because it almost did, and I actually quite liked the protagonist. Human folly at its best (or worst, really, I suppose) leads to the poor dear's undoing.

The Game of Backgammon: Another downer, but interesting in the way he uses the framing device. A number of his stories start and end with someone telling a story, but this one brings the frame back before the story is over. Something happens in "real life," if you will, leading to the story's being broken off so you never actually get to find out how it ends.

The Venus of Ille: There was a little Frankenstein in here, a little Tim Burton's Coprse Bride, and I want to say at least a little of something else I've heard before. It was very reminiscent of a sort of folk tale, maybe, an old legend that we've heard in various incarnations throughout our lives. Who knows, though? Maybe this was the original.

Lokis: This one was a little odd. It too ends quite abruptly, but not in quite the same way as the other. You basically do get to the end of the story, but there are quite a number of unanswered questions at that point. It seems like there might be a supernatural element, but that's never entirely clear, or it could just be an insanity story, but that's not entirely clear either. I liked it, though. It kept me interested in what was going to happen, so that's good.

Generally, I'm not a big fan of short stories, but for the most part, these ones were pretty decent. Still, though, I prefer to have my stories told in their full context and everything, rather than just quick little snapshots of a moment.

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology contains:

Carmen
A novella about true love, though one is infatuated and the other indifferent

First, I should have written this in French, but I have a while to go yet so I hope you'll bear with me.

To this day, the female seducer is a negative symbol: Venus/Aphrodite, Lillith, sirens, succubi. Godly or demonic, lore presents their power as most sordid.

Carmen is of their ilk, but human, vibrant and alive. Therein lies her charm, for one alive is to be bound by humanity. Thus, her foolish lover expects the goddess, but restrained by the weaknesses of her form and dependent of the rules society made to protect her. Yet Carmen is not only as free as the wind, but strong and independent also, and for reasons unknown doesn't fall in love with the designated 'Prince Charming'.

He claims it is the fault of her upbringing, but what would that mean? 'nurture' needs 'nature' and upbringing is bound to create conflict if turned on the wrong temper. If one is to love, after falling in love, it is at the conflicts inside the other, not the conflicts between the two, one should look.

Mateo Falcone
A short story about the facets of honor. One might say there is really only one kind and it's already perishing from this brand new world and for me and that person there are little stories like this one which makes you ask "what else could he have done?" Honor is a code that is enforced by one's pride and fear, that cherishes integrity and allows dignity.

It is not a perfect world, ours and the dominion of law and conscience bring more security than the coin toss of whether the local who's strongest is also wisest, but the same conscience and law dictate that he live blemished by the festering mark of his weakness and shame.

L'Enlèvement de la redoute

Venus d'Ille
There is a certain romanticism in a statue that kills those who play at love, though the symbolism of a black Venus with white eyes seems to raw for my taste, demon-like, really. This expression is enforced by her facial expression, described as wicked (while extremely beautiful). If anything, this Venus inspires a feeling of the inevitable and perhaps this is where the 'horror' lies.

Otherwise, if I were to go for some black humor I'd say this short story is a jab at feminists, though it appeared long before the Suffrage.

[Wayne]

In the 2003 Spanish film "Carmen"(there have been almost 2 dozen film renditions of Prosper Merimee's 1845 story - plus Bizet's opera!!), I am curious as to how many liberties have been taken. Which is why I need to reread the story
"Pain and love are our eternal teachers," says Prosper Merimee to Don Jose as he visits him in prison where he awaits garroting for murdering his own Great Love, Carmen.(Trouble was the feeling was not mutual. Carmen prefers Death to abandoning her own Will. She accepts ,urges Jose to kill her...in a church.)And Jose has been prepared to kill any man who comes between him and his Love eg.Carmen's husband,aided by Carmen herself as well as the Toreador who survives in the opera. There is such fatalism, such a determination to keep to the script,such unflinching passion in these Spanish characters.
But is it in the book?
It all worked well in the film, and Merimee was certainly in his own story!!!

I've only seen Colette apppear in her own stories.I'd forgotten Merimee.
Somerset Maughn appears in his novel "The Razor's Edge" come to think of it. It's an approach I like. Who else does this??

[Giuseppe Circiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grazie ad un'iniziativa di un'associazione giovanile di Ercolano, che per il Carnevale ha organizzato una sorta di bookcrossing, ho potuto far la conoscenza di Prosper Mérimée... ed ahimè, qui devo ammettere che non lo conoscevo. Male! Poiché il suo racconto più celebre "Carmen" ha ispirato l'omonima Opera di Georges Bizet.
Questo libricino contiene 4 racconti: Carmen, Il Vaso Etrusco, Le Anime del Purgatorio, La Venere d'Illes.
E' una lettura piacevole e Mérimée ha il pregio d'essere conciso e dinamico. Forse oggi sono storie che riterremmo semplici e non originalissime (a parte la Venere d'Illes, dal sapore gotico) ma, quando si giudicano libri scritti nel 1800, bisogna appunto ricordarsi che sono stati scritti "ieri".
Il terzo racconto, sulla vita di uno dei tanti Don Giovanni della letteratura è quello che mi è piaciuto meno: annoia perché ancor prima d'iniziare già se ne può ipotizzare, a grandi linee, lo svolgimento (però descrive bene tutta l'evoluzione del personaggio).
Carmen è, invece, un piccolo gioello: diretto, passionale e crudele. E Carmen, benché sia un "antieroe", perché per 3/4 del racconto il suo personaggio non è certo da emulare, si riscatta ampiamente difendendo, stoica, la propria libertà a costo della vita (divenendo eroina? ...hmmm). Di sicuro rimane una delle figure femminili più emancipate e forti della letteratura.
Ha ispirato questa musica e questa interpretazione... ditemi voi se non vale la pena di leggerlo...:

youtube.com/watch?v=uCj658xbwj0

Ps: piccola aggiunta... quello che mi ha colpito, riflettendoci un momentino in più, è che Mérimée racconta sempre di amori tragici.

Pps: il numero di stelle qui è quasi una media...a Carmen 4, a Il Vaso Etrusco e alla Venere d'Illes 3, a Le Anime del Purgatorio n.c.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carmen and Other Stories is a pleasing collection of tales from Prosper Mérimée. Knowing the opera of Carmen well, I was interested to read the source material; although, as it turns out, this was not my favourite piece in the collection. The ones that stood out most for me were The Etruscan Vase, The Venus of Ille and Colomba. I enjoyed the pacing of the tales and the memorable characters, as well as the great sense of place Mérimée established in each piece. If you enjoy 19th century fiction and short stories, this anthology is well worth checking out. It gets 4.5 stars from me.

[Natacha Pavlov · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 Carmen: She deserves little sympathy. Andalusia <3!

2023 other stories read: Mostly atmospheric short tales :)

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a pretty good collection. I didn't really know much about the title story and for some reason I'd always thought that the opera was Italian. Carmen is a classic femme fatale story of a man led into evil acts by a beautiful woman. Grand passions are ignited in the man but I didn't expect him to murder the object of his desire. All in all, a great story and it's interesting to compare it to the opera, which took away most of the "gypsy" and Basque stuff and introduced the toreador character in place of Carmen's husband.

The other novella, Colomba, is also an interesting romantic piece. By "romantic", I mean it in the sense of a story dealing with duty, honour, tradition, and other "manly" virtues. It seems like Merimee was fascinated by these ideas as the other stories also dwell on similar themes.

There's also the two stories that deal with the supernatural, The Venus of Ille and Lokis. The former could easily fit into a "Twilight Zone" episode and the latter could also be interpreted as psychological horror. I think these ideas were being explored more by 19th Century novelists like in Varney the Vampire, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

These were pretty entertaining stories and it's a shame that Merimee didn't write more fiction. The protagonists were all from the upper class and I think this collection shows that the novel form was a major source of entertainment for them. I would recommend this collection for anyone who likes short stories.

[Olga Sala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leída por curiosidad literaria, más que por entusiasmo lector. Conocía la historia por la ópera de Bizet —como casi todo el mundo— y quise volver al texto original.

Carmen es una novela corta, seca y directa. Tiene fuerza narrativa y un tono confesional que atrapa en los primeros tramos. Don José es un narrador trágico, atrapado en su obsesión, y Carmen… Carmen es el mito: libre, escurridiza, indomable.

Pero más allá del interés cultural y del retrato de una época con todos sus prejuicios raciales y de género a cuestas, la lectura no me emocionó. La historia va de más a menos, se intuye más interesante de lo que se despliega, y el retrato exótico de la “mujer fatal” hoy se siente lejano y cansado.

🔹 Lo mejor: La figura de Carmen, con todo su magnetismo y ambigüedad.
🔹 Lo peor: Breve, pero desigual. Más interesante como pieza cultural que como experiencia lectora.

Una historia que ya forma parte del imaginario colectivo, aunque el texto que la originó pese más por lo que generó después que por lo que ofrece por sí solo.

[Italo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma série de histórias onde a sociedade burguesa se encontra com a cultura isolada de certas regiões. As melhores histórias são: Federigo, um malandro que recebeu favores de Jesus e conseguiu enganar a morte, o demônio e São Pedro; As Almas do Purgatório, que narra a queda do bom Don Juan para uma vida de vícios, violência e amores; Colomba, onde a vingança de uma família é concretizada por um filho hesitante e a sombra de sua irmã honrosa; Carmen, a sedutora que leva bons homens para a vida da estrada, cheia de amores, desejos e paixões; Lokis, uma história tão pitoresca e fantasiosa que me nego a falar demais por medo de estragar. O maior defeito da narrativa se da por conta dos prólogos acadêmicos que muitas das histórias tem. São arrastados e quebram demais o ritmo narrativo. Genuinamente não sei se a história originalmente é tão bem escrita ou se são as graças de Quintana.

[Ivy Blossom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up for Carmen, but I quite liked all of the stories. Sure, they are all heavily xenophobic e misogynistic, but that comes along with the territory of reading old books. However, I will say that while the author and narrators means to portray women as villainous seductress that can't be trusted, I was just thinking "you do that, queen!" all the time. I am supposed to root for those boring white men and not the evil temptress? Oh well, mission failed.

[léa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Certaines des nouvelles sont meilleures que d'autres, et les... sujets de certaines ont mal vieilli.
Mais quand Mérimée écrit bien, il écrit très bien. La réputation de La Vénus d'Ille n'est plus à faire. Mais tant d'autres moins connues, comme Arsène Guillot, L'Abbé Aubain, La Chambre Bleue (5/5!), et Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia valent aussi parfaitement le détour.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

En tidigare upplaga, eftersom jag köpte den i Frankrike sommaren 1982.
Titelnovellen liknar inte operan särskilt mycket. Men det är intressant att läsa dessa noveller från 1840-talet. Trots de pittoreska miljöerna och intrigerna, känns hans stil realistiskt klar.

[joaqui. · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘“You are the Devil incarnate,” I said to her. ‘“Yes,” she replied.



adapted (inspired) film:
carmen (2022) dir. Benjamin Millepied.
la bête (1975) dir. Walerian Borowczyk.

[Arun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me most of the book to really get into it but it was quite entertaining and funny by the end, especially considering these stories are nearly 200 years old

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've only read Lokis, but I loved it. I liked its gothic feel and of course the werebear.

[Bridget Corcoran]

Just reading/skimming Carmen for my opera course

[Lydia_Lfrg · Rating 3 out of 5]

je pensais pas du tout que c'était ça l'histoire, rip carmen

[Radu Popovici · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 *

[Marianne GIRARD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le moins que l’on puisse dire c’est que la Vénus mérite sa réputation. La nouvelle est formidable mais elle est loin d’être la seule pépite du recueil.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

favorite stories:

Carmen (bari crallisa!)
The Etruscan Vase (amusing)
The Game of Backgammon (love sucks and so do liars)
Colomba (vivacious femme fatale story; reminds me of the ladies from House Martell)
Lokis (a stark contrast to the other stories, great 'wtf' factor)

in comparison to Stendhal, especially since these two were buddies, you can see some similarities but in my opinion, Stendhal is a much more enjoyable read. if you like the opera Carmen, the short story alone (which is accessible online, just Google it) is a good read.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some long stories and novellas from Prosper Mérimée, evidently representing much of the literary output in a career devoted to many other pursuits. The stories were all filled with drama, excitement, exoticism, betrayal, greed, death, and all the other elements of great opera--exemplified by the title story, Carmen, but also many of the others would lend themselves to similar operatic treatment. All of them enjoyable as adventure stories, probably none of them particularly insightful about real human psychology.

[Dylan Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely fabulous edition of Prosper Mérimée stories filled to the brim with appendixs and explanatory notes. The stories themselves have lost some of their exotic flair they were written in a time when people seldom travelled beyond own countries boarders, however what they do offer is an excellent look at the past of the countries where Mérimée tales are set for both morden locals and foreigners

[Kalen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not an automatic fan of the short story form, but I have to say I really enjoyed these. There was something about the passionate tales combined with the slightly cool French style that I found very satisfying. And if you read "Carmen" and listen to the 1915 recording of the opera that was recently released, it will make you re-think this particular warhorse.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just started reading Carmen today even though it has been on my shelf for over four years. It's a great story and I cannot put it down. Then again I like the opera, so it is fun to see the original story. READ IT!