Customer Reviews

Colomba

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I was first introduced to Merimee six years ago, during my sophomore year at Cornell, when my French class read a short story of his, La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room). As he is considered the finest French author of short stories (that wildly elusive literary format), I was left disappointed by this mediocre tale.

A few years later, as I was planning a trip to Europe, I decided to polish up my French by doing a little reading. I bought a couple of books of Merimee's stories, including the short novel Colomba. Though I've only read it in French (the poetic phrases doubtlessly lose something in translation), I can say that it is exciting and inspired me to visit Corsica.

The tale is relatively simple yet adventurous. Corsica, a French possession which was formerly Italian, is home to a male-dominated society in which Mafia-style vendettas are the rule amongst the various "families". Colomba herself is the very strong-willed sister of Orso, the new head of his clan. Of course there are the love-story elements, but mainly it's an exciting and very descriptive adventure story.

Give it a try! It's not long... if you are unsure, read Merimee's short story Mateo Falcone first.... possibly the best French shory story ever, and definitely one of the better ones from any country.

In reading this dramatic short novel, I could not refrain from thinking of Western (cowboy) novels. One could so easily take the same plot and the same characters and transpose them to the wild West. It could almost be argued that Merimee invented the Western, except that he located the action in Corsica.