{"product_id":"2940000778005","title":"Carmen","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe novella that was the basis for perhaps the most popular opera of all time, Prosper Mérimée’s \u003ci\u003eCarmen \u003c\/i\u003eis the swashbuckling story of a nineteenth-century Spanish soldier who deserts his post to pursue the fiery gypsy beauty, Carmen—who is as brave as she is fickle.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe opera’s plot, it turns out, is based only on part of the larger adventure that is \u003ci\u003eCarmen\u003c\/i\u003e. The story opens, for example, with the narrator, a historian like Mérimée, researching the lost site of an ancient Roman battle on the plains of Andalusia, when he meets a notorious bandit, Don José Navarro, on the run from the law. Feeling a certain sympathy for Don José, whose face is “at once noble and fierce,” and a vicarious thrill at this brush with danger, he helps the bandit to escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen they next meet again, Don José is in jail in Cordova, due to be hanged for his crimes. In his last days, he tells the narrator about a wild gypsy woman he met back in Seville . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat follows is an iconic and highly entertaining tale of doomed passion full of chases, sword fights, bullfights, smuggling, wild dancing, and more—except no mezzo-sopranos.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"B\u0026R Samizdat Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47177632710896,"sku":"2940000778005","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940000778005_p0.jpg?v=1763545651","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940000778005","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}