Cover incorporating part of Mérimée's own watercolor "Carmen"

"Carmen" is a novella by Prosper Mérimée written and first published in 1845. It has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous opera by Georges Bizet. Image File history File links Carmen_cover. ... Image File history File links Carmen_cover. ... A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (September 28, 1803–September 23, 1870) was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. ... Poster from the 1875 premiere of Carmen Carmen is a French opera by Georges Bizet. ... Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875) was a French composer and pianist of the romantic era. ...

Sources

According to a letter Mérimée wrote to the Countess of Montijo (whose daughter would become the Empress Eugénie), "Carmen" was inspired by a story she told him on his visit to Spain in 1830. He said, "It was about that ruffian from Málaga who killed his mistress, which latter consecrated herself exclusively to the public.… As I have been studying the Gypsies for some time, I have made my heroine a Gypsy." Empress Eugénie Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, Countess de Teba, who became Empress Eugénie [1] [2] [3] (May 5, 1826 – July 11, 1920) was Empress Consort of France (1853-1871), the wife of Napoleon III, emperor of the French. ... Location within Spain Malaga redirects here. ...

An important source for the material on the Roma (Gypsies) was George Borrow's book The Zincali (1841). This article is becoming very long. ... George Borrow George Henry Borrow (1803-1881) was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. ...

Summary

The novella is divided into four parts. Only the first three appeared in the original publication in the Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of the Two Worlds); the fourth first appeared in the book publication in 1846. Mérimée tells the story as if it had really happened to him on his trip to Spain in 1830.

Part I. While searching for the site of the Battle of Munda in a lonely spot in Andalusia, Mérimée meets a man who his guide hints is a dangerous robber. Instead of fleeing, Mérimée befriends the man by sharing cigars and food. They stay in the same primitive inn that night. The guide tells Mérimée that the man is the robber known as Don José Navarro and leaves to inform on him, but Mérimée warns Don José, who escapes in time. Combatants Populares Optimates Commanders Julius Caesar Titus Labienus †, Gnaeus Pompeius; Strength 8 legions, 8,000 cavalry total: circa 40,000 men 13 legions, cavalry and auxiliaries total: circa 70,000 men Casualties 1,000 30,000 The Battle of Munda took place on March 17, 45 BC in the plains... Motto: Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad (Andalusia by herself, for Spain, and for humankind) Capital Seville Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 2nd  87,268 km²  17. ...

Part II. Later, in Córdoba, Mérimée meets Carmen, a beautiful Roma woman who is fascinated by his repeating watch. He goes to her home so she can tell his fortune, and she impresses him with her occult knowledge. They are interrupted by Don José, and although Carmen makes throat-cutting gestures, José escorts Mérimée out. Mérimée finds his watch is missing. Location Coordinates : 37° 53’N , 4°46′0″W Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Córdoba (Spanish) Spanish name Córdoba Founded 8th century BC Postal code 140xx Website http://www. ... A wrist watch A watch is a small portable timepiece or clock that displays the time and sometimes the day, date, month and year. ... For prophecy in the context of revealed religions see Prophet. ...

Some months later, again in Córdoba, a friend of Mérimée's tells him that Don José Navarro is to be garrotted the next day. Mérimée visits the prisoner and hears the story of his life. A garrote (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, or wire used to strangle someone to death. ...

Part III. Our robber's real name is José Lizarrabengoa, and he is a Basque hidalgo from Navarre. He killed a man in a fight resulting from a game of paume (sometimes called real tennis, it is related to jai alai) and had to flee. In Seville he joined a unit of dragoons, soldiers with police functions. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... An hidalgo or fidalgo was a member of the lower Spanish nobility. ... Capital Pamplona (Basque: Iruña) Official language(s) Spanish; Basque co-official in the north of community. ... Pilota in Basque and Catalan, pelota in Spanish, or pelote in French (from Latin pila) is a name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using ones hand, a racket, a wooden bat (pala), or a basket propulsor, against a wall (frontón in Spanish, frontoi... NO8DO (It has not abandoned me) Location Coordinates : ( ) Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Sevilla (Spanish) Spanish name Sevilla Founded 8th-9th century BC Postal code 41001-41080 Website http://www. ... A light dragoon from the American Revolution French dragoon, 1745. ...

One day he met Carmen, then working in the cigar factory he was guarding. As he alone in his unit ignored her, she teased him. A few hours later, he arrested her for cutting x's in a co-worker's face in a quarrel. She convinced him by speaking Basque that she was half Basque, and he let her go, for which he was imprisoned for a month and demoted. Four cigars of different brands (from top: H. Upmann, Montecristo, Macanudo, Romeo y Julieta) An airtight cigar storage tube and a guillotine-style cutter A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco, one end of which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into... Basque (in Basque: Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France. ...

After his release, he encountered her again and she repaid him with a day of bliss, followed by another when he allowed her fellow smugglers to pass his post. He looked for her at the house of one of her Roma friends, but she entered with his lieutenant. In the ensuing fight, José killed the lieutenant and had to join Carmen's outlaw band. A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853, by Vasily Hudiakov. ...

With the outlaws, he progressed from smuggling to robbery, and was sometimes with Carmen but suffered from jealousy as she used her attractions to further the band's enterprises; he also learned that she was married. After her husband joined the band, José provoked a knife fight with him and killed him. Carmen became his wife.

However, she told him she loved him less than before, and she became attracted to a successful young picador named Lucas. José, mad with jealousy, begged her to forsake other men and live with him; they could start an honest life in America. She said that she knew from omens that he was fated to kill her, but "Carmen will always be free," and as she now hated herself for having loved him, she would never give in to him. He stabbed her to death and then turned himself in. Don José ends his tale by saying that the Roma are to blame for the way they raised Carmen. Picador is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, a publisher owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ...

Part IV. If readers expect a contination of the story, perhaps with a description of José's last moments before being executed, they will be surprised. This part consists of scholarly remarks on the Roma: their appearance, their customs, their conjectured history, and their language. According to Henri Martineau, editor of a collection of Mérimée's fiction, the etymologies at the end are "extremely suspect". Romani (or Romany) is the language of the Roma and Sinti, peoples often referred to in English as Gypsies. The Indo-Aryan Romani language should not be confused with either Romanian (spoken by Romanians), or Romansh (spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland), both of which are Romance languages. ...

Differences from the opera

As the above summary and that of Bizet's opera indicate, the opera is based on Part III of the story only and eliminates many elements, such as Carmen's husband. It greatly increases the role of other characters, such as the Dancaïre,^[1] who is only a minor character in the story; the Remendado,^[2] who one page after he is introduced is wounded by soldiers and then shot by Carmen's husband to keep him from slowing the gang down; and Lucas (renamed Escamillo and promoted to matador), who is seen only in the bull ring in the story. The opera's female characters other than Carmen—Micaëla, Frasquita, and Mercédès—have no counterparts in the novella. Carmen knows her fate not from reading cards but from interpreting such omens as a hare running between José's horse's legs. Other differences are too numerous to list. Poster from the 1875 premiere of Carmen Carmen is a French opera by Georges Bizet. ... Matador Antonio Barrera in the capote de paseo (dress cape) before a bullfight during the 2003 Aste Nagusia festival in Bilbao, Spain A torero (roughly bull handler) is the main performer in bullfighting events in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. ...

Notes

1. ^ Dancaire, an obsolete Spanish word for someone who gambles on someone else's behalf with that person's money
2. ^ Man wearing patched clothes

References

• Carmen in English: [1]

• Mérimée, Prosper (1973). Les Âmes du Purgatoire, Carmen. Paris: Garnier Flammarion. With an apparatus criticus by Jean Decottignies. This edition's text and notes were used for the first draft of the present article.

• Mérimée, Prosper (1846). Carmen. Paris: Michel Lévy. The original book publication, also containing the stories "Arsène Guillot" and "L'Abbé Aubain".

• Henri Martineau, editor. Mérimée, Prosper (1951). Romans et Nouvelles. Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Cited by Decottignies.