La Vénus d'Ille et Carmen

by Prosper Mérimée

"Carmen"--the inspiration for one of the world's most popular operas--is a story about the dark forces that lurk beneath the facade of civilization, where passions are brutal and erotic love is seductive and sinister. When Don Jose 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 Jose, 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 Merimee 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 Merimee is a noted French novelist, playwright, and short story writer.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, France

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1845

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

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A re-read can make or break a book for me. Either the author's skill shines more brightly or you find plot holes. With Carmen, it was a pleasure to delve back into the world inhabited by Jose and the woman whom he desires. The story is still intense, but you notice the details more.

The second story, The Venus of Ille also features a strong woman, this time in the form of a bronze statue of a Roman Goddess, who enacts vengeance on a man who does not take love seriously. It's interesting how the goddess contrasts with the young wife in the story, as femininity is viewed as both naturally deviant and potentially docile when civilized through Christianity. In the end, Mérimée prefers to leave all things moral ambiguous.

[Wera · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars
*** I have a YouTube channel now! Check it out here. ***

Delightful short novella. Watched the operatic adaptaion and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

[André Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost as good as Persona 5

[Katy Ferron · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5

[Bookish Barbarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and short read

[Nathalia T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belle prose, facile à comprendre malgré le français ancien.

Déçue que la Vénus de l’île soit si courte, mais elle donnerait un incroyable thriller au cinéma. Et Carmen, faudrait que je regarde la pièce pour m’en faire la tête…

Basically love rends you dumb😂

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked Carmen but, it ended too quickly. Plus, I was confused when I reached the end because I didn't realize the author had gone off on a tangent about his research.

The story I really liked, which is also in this paperback, is called "The Venus of Ille". It's simple and very eerie. I'm not sure how Prosper Merimee was able to instill concern and fear in me so soon but, I was captivated from the beginning and still looking over my shoulder an hour later.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Raciste et misogyne. Je sais que c’était comme ça que les gens pensaient à l’époque, mais l’histoire au complet est basée sur le fait que Carmen est Romani et donc une sorcière servante de satan. Lu pour l’école.

[Megan Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read The Venus of Ille (Andrew Brown translation) for a class; we've been focusing a lot on which writers render the familiar. uncanny. I haven't read enough horror to say much about the genre, but The Venus of Ille is the kind of story that only gets spookier the more you think about it.

There's an especially interesting connection between The Venus of Ille and the idea of "doubles" in Freud's paper, The Uncanny. In Mérimée's story, the statue of Venus and the young wife are constantly being compared; much as in Freud's interpretation of the father-imago in The Sandman, it's as if the wife and the statue of Venus are representations of the female-imago's "innocent and pure" and "evil, vengeful" sides respectively - at least to the men in the story.

What's more, from the perspective of the narrator, we never actually directly hear the young wife in the story speak, or see the statue move. Are we certain that we have the full picture? Are we certain that the wife and the statue are not one and the same? We begin the story expecting to have come into a world that follows our own world's rules, and yet it is precisely because of this that the events that unfold are ever so much more blurry. Limited to the perspective of the narrator, we have absolutely no way of knowing anything - and this uncertainty is what makes us experience such a distinctly uncanny feeling of dread.

EDIT: Just noticed another much more insidious reading of the text - that this entire text is an intentional manipulation of us as readers, a cover up for the narrator's own actions.

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Also read Carmen (but not from this book; the version on The Project Gutenberg translated by Lady Mary Loyd). Interesting how just as the narrator in The Venus of Ille, the narrator of Carmen begins by establishing himself as an archaeological expert, and seems to express experiences, characters, and feelings mostly through descriptions of appearance, actions, and other physical traits. - perhaps to add to his reliability/objectivity as a narrator, and the realism of the story? There are so many little details, colorful descriptions of people and places, added tidbits and trivia that the narrator has learned while traveling through Spain, that even on a skim, it's a fun, dramatic read.

[Marie-Christine Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parfois un peu long avant que l’action principale de l’histoire débute et fil chronologique un peu difficile à mettre complètement ensemble dans Carmen, mais histoires de grande qualité aux dénouements tragiques et vifs.

[Katie Fleetwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I could give it a 2.5 I would. Not my favorite, but not the worst either.

I was a bit confused towards the end because it wasn't clear that the writer/translator was adding his own info on his language work.

I think it might come across better in its opera form.

[Shany · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Très saccadé et pas mon style, tout de même bien écrit et tout un peu intéressant.
je n’ai que lu les deux nouvelles de Merimée et non l’étude qui les suit.

[Loveliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. Carmen three stars. The Venus of Ille four stars.

[David Meditationseed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice selection,

Venus Ille is an interesting tale with hidden and occult issues.

Archeology, anthropology, and history give us clues and moves to lower the arrogance that almost always pervades modern societies, pointing out that many times we do not understand the beliefs, symbols, and powers that existed in earlier culturies and were even revered like gods or demons.

Neil Gaiman's book American Gods points to something like this: how gods can lose or gain power according to people's faith, memory, and presence in their time.

This tale also deals about the confuse between a forgotten goddess (or demon) and a beautiful statue. Could art representations of gods or demons carry something more inside them? A power, an enchantment, a soul?

Other point of this tale is the reflexion about the superficial or scornful interpretation that a society can make of its symbols and from others cultures.

An example that the author point to this direction is the constant comparative and even prejudiced dialogue that some characters have about the people, thoughts and customs from Paris and the interior of France and the dispute and a kind of patriotism that can be symbolized among other things by the sport.

Carmen is another good story, but Venus touched me more.

[Emily Arlidge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to rate this book. It enjoyed the story and found it very interesting from a historical + opera lover perspective. It’s a fairly gripping story but I can’t say I found the writing that incredible. It was undoubtedly racist and misogynistic but I would like to know more of the historical context of that.

The overall draw of the book has to be the character of Carmen - The sexiest most independent lady in opera !!!

[U · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read Carmen

[Mel♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

:/