"La Guzla" de Prosper Mérimée

"La Guzla" de Prosper Mérimée by Vojislav Mate Jovanović is a critical study published in 1911 examining Prosper Mérimée's 1827 literary hoax. Mérimée presented fabricated Balkan folk ballads as authentic translations, complete with invented commentaries and a fictional narrator. The romantic poems featured werewolves, phantoms, and vampires, satirizing the era's exaggerated exotic storytelling. Though commercially unsuccessful, the work fooled major literary figures including Pushkin and Goethe, establishing Mérimée's reputation while exposing how easily "local color" could be manufactured.