The poems, supposedly narrated by local man Hyacinthe Maglanović and then translated into French, turned out to be a literary hoax.

[1] La Guzla was presented as a collection of translations (in fact, pseudotranslations) of folk ballads narrated by a guzlar ('gusle player') Hyacinthe Maglanović, complete with invented commentaries.

Mérimée drew upon many historic sources for his picturesque and gothic portrait of the Balkans, including a tale about vampires taken from the writings of the 18th-century French monk Dom Calmet.

La Guzla was intended as satirical commentary on the exaggerated and bombastic style of the era that people would get swept up in.

"[citation needed] After La Guzla, his stories focused more on France and the present time, and avoided using sensationalized topics.