Prosper Merimee: Carmen

Prosper Mérimée (28 September 1803 -- 23 September 1870) 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. 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. According to a letter Mérimée wrote to the Countess of Montijo, 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 had killed his mistress, who consecrated herself exclusively to the public. [...] As I have been studying the Gypsies for some time, I have made my heroine a Gypsy.“ An important source for the material on the Romani people (Gypsies) was George Borrow’s book The Zincali (1841). Another source may have been the narrative poem The Gypsies (1824) by Alexand