Carmen

A French scholar traveling through Andalusia crosses paths twice with trouble: first a notorious bandit, then a bewitching Romani woman in Cordoba who steals his watch while telling his fortune. Later the bandit, Don José, once a promising soldier, tells the scholar his story, and how a single encounter with Carmen unraveled his career, his conscience, and his life, one fatal choice at a time.

Mérimée's lean 1845 novella is the source of Bizet's opera, and it's harder-edged than the music: a cool, almost documentary frame wrapped around a story of obsession that burns straight to its end. Carmen herself is free and fearless and loyal only to her own liberty, one of fiction's great forces of nature. At around three hours, it's a single-evening listen with a long echo.

At roughly 25,700 words, Carmen runs about 3 hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

Carmen is in the public domain, so the complete text is free on Project Gutenberg and LoudReader has the entire Project Gutenberg catalog built in. To listen:

1. Download LoudReader for Mac or iPhone (free, no account).
2. Search for “Carmen” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

LoudReader reads with natural offline voices, so the whole book works on a plane or underground. It is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Listening is unlimited on the free tier.