<b>The swashbuckling story that inspired one of the world's most beloved operas<br><br></b>The novella that was the basis for one of the most popular operas of all time, Prosper Merimee's <i>Carmen</i> is swashbuckling story of a nineteenth-century Spanish soldier who deserts his post to pursue the fiery gypsy beauty, Carmen -- who seems to love him yet nonetheless seems to do everything in her power to escape him.<br><br>But the opera, it turns out, is only based on a part of the larger adventure that is <i>Carmen</i>. The story opens, for example, with Prosper Merimee himself meeting an famous (and on-the-run) highwayman on the plains of Andalusia. Helping the dangerous robber -- whom he feels is a kind of Robin Hood -- he is rewarded with the story of the wild Gypsy woman he knows of back in Seville ...<br><br>What follows is a swashbuckling tale to rival those of Zorro, with sword fights and and horse chases and wild dancing and more -- except, no mezzo-sopranos.