Carmen

by Prosper Mérimée

"Carmen" by Prosper Mérimée is a novella published in 1845. When a narrator encounters a fugitive bandit in Andalusia, he helps him escape. Later, visiting the condemned man in prison, he hears the tragic story of Don José, a soldier who fell dangerously in love with Carmen, a free-spirited Romani woman. His obsessive passion drives him into a life of crime, murder, and ultimately a fatal decision that seals both their fates in this tale of jealousy and doomed desire.