It has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous opera of the same name by Georges Bizet.

[1] According to a letter Mérimée wrote to the Countess of Montijo,[a] Carmen was inspired by a story she told him on his visit to Spain in 1830.

"[b] An important source for the material on the Romani people (Gypsies, Gitanos) was George Borrow's book The Zincali (1841).

While searching for the site of the Battle of Munda in a lonely spot in Andalusia, the author meets a man who his guide hints is a dangerous robber.

Later, in Córdoba, the author meets Carmen, a beautiful Gitano (Romani) woman who is fascinated by his repeating watch.

With the outlaws, he progressed from smuggling to robbery, and was sometimes with Carmen but suffered from jealousy as she used her attractions to further the band's enterprises; he also learned that she was married.

José, mad with jealousy, begged her to forsake other men and live with him; they could start an honest life in America.

According to Henri Martineau [fr], editor of a collection of Mérimée's fiction,[4] the etymologies at the end are "extremely suspect".

[citation needed] The opera is based on Part III of the story and omits many elements, such as Carmen's husband.

It greatly increases the role of other characters, such as the Dancaïre,[d] who is only a minor character in the story; the Remendado,[e] who one page after he is introduced is wounded by soldiers and then shot by Carmen's husband to keep him from slowing the gang down; and Lucas (renamed Escamillo and promoted to matador), who is seen only in the bull ring in the story.