Carmen
By Prosper Mérimée (translated by Mary Loyd)
Cover: Lola de Valence (1862), oil on canvas by Édouard Manet (1832-1883) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1883)
Prosper Merimee's 1845 novella, the source of the opera, tells of an antiquarian who meets the bandit Don Jose and the gypsy Carmen in Andalusia. A reader finds a short, fierce tale of love and jealousy. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur. This book contains scenes of violence as its author wrote them.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.