Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella Carmen introduced one of literature’s most iconic characters: a fiercely independent Romani woman whose magnetic charisma and refusal to be possessed drive a soldier to ruin. Short, sharp, and morally unsentimental, it is a masterpiece of French Romanticism rooted in Mérimée’s scholarly interest in Spanish culture and folklore.
Carmen’s fame grew immeasurably when Georges Bizet adapted it into his celebrated opera in 1875, but the original story retains its own raw power. Download this public-domain novella as a free EPUB and meet the character at the source.