SOURCE: "More on the Sources of Mérimée's Carmen," in Journal of Basque Studies in America, Vol. 6, 1985, pp. 29-38.

In the following essay, Galbis recounts the Spanish and Basque sources of plot and character in Mérimeé's Carmen.

It is a well-documented fact that the basic source for Mérimée's famous nouvelle Carmen¹ was a popular tale that the French author heard at one of the many soirées he attended at the estate of the Countess of Montijo on the outskirts of Madrid. It is my intention to suggest that, besides that primary source of inspiration, there are other Spanish historic, literary and even ethnical elements included in the masterful artistic elaboration of the tragic love story of the pseudogypsy Carmen and her bewitched Basque lover don José. Although some of these elements have been given due consideration by critics such as Pierre Trahard...