Carmen, Colomba & Selected Stories by Prosper Mérimée ....Signet Classics CP180Carmen, Colomba, Mateo Falcone, The Storming of the Redoubt, The Game of Backgammon, The Etruscan Vase, The Venus of IlleIn these tales of passion and
vengeance, conflict and death, the reader encounters an unflinching honesty rare in literature. There is no veil of morality or mist of sentiment to shield him from the naked face of violence - only the impeccable style and ironic detachment of the author's matchless art. Armed with this ambiguous weapon, commanding the reader's attention even as he destroys all illusion, Mérimée is inexorably drawn to the primitive forces beneath the thin veneer of civilization. His stories may be set in the harsh landscapes of Spain and Corsica or the hospitable climes of France or Italy, on a bloody battlefield or in a tense cardroom, but his aim is unswerving: His constant target lies in the primal depths of the human heart.
