Carmilla [with Biographical Introduction]
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The vampire has always been used to convey sexuality -- and one of the earliest ones, the title character of "Carmilla," is no exception. Years before Bram Stoker ever dreamed of Dracula. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wove together a luscious, haunting gothic mystery that centers around a lovely, immortal young woman with a taste for blood.
When a mysterious carriage crashes at their schloss, Laura's father offers to take care of a young lady named Carmilla, who has been stunned by the collision. Laura herself is struck by how similar the girl looks to a strange figure that visited her as a child -- and Carmilla claims that they've had some sort of mutual vision of one another.
Even more striking, Carmilla immediately becomes VERY attached to Laura ("You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever"), and Laura is strangely entranced by Carmilla's speech.
As the days go by, Laura is increasingly bespelled by Carmilla, despite the young woman's strange behavior (and her weird resemblance to an ancient painting in the schloss, of a woman named Mircalla -- get it?), and is becoming increasingly ill and nervous. But when they visit an old friend, he reveals the shocking truth about Carmilla's true nature... and what she will do to Laura.
"Carmilla" is a true gothic novel in the best sense of the word -- a lushly-written little novella filled with ruined palaces, abandoned villages, moonlight and blood. And Le Fanu injects a not-so-subtle lesbian subtext into the story, since Carmilla seems to be as infatuated with Laura as she is hungry for her blood. Lots of kisses, adoring speeches, and Carmilla constantly creeping into Laura's bedroom.
And Le Fanu's writing is utterly exquisite. He swathes this eerie little story in a ghostly wrap of lush writing ("Over the sward and low grounds a thin film of mist was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a transparent veil") and some deeply creepy moments, such as Laura waking to see Carmilla covered in blood.
Le Fanu also sketches out his characters quickly and effectively, despite the novella's brevity. Laura is a sweet ordinary girl who seems both weirded out and entranced by Carmilla, and Carmilla herself is a larger-than-life character -- sensual, obsessive, vibrantly erotic and extremely creepy, except when she goes off on crazy rants about how much she hates hymns and funerals.
Stoker brought the vampire into the limelight, but "Carmilla" seductively introduced the vampire's eerie allure long before that. Luscious and eerie.
When a mysterious carriage crashes at their schloss, Laura's father offers to take care of a young lady named Carmilla, who has been stunned by the collision. Laura herself is struck by how similar the girl looks to a strange figure that visited her as a child -- and Carmilla claims that they've had some sort of mutual vision of one another.
Even more striking, Carmilla immediately becomes VERY attached to Laura ("You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever"), and Laura is strangely entranced by Carmilla's speech.
As the days go by, Laura is increasingly bespelled by Carmilla, despite the young woman's strange behavior (and her weird resemblance to an ancient painting in the schloss, of a woman named Mircalla -- get it?), and is becoming increasingly ill and nervous. But when they visit an old friend, he reveals the shocking truth about Carmilla's true nature... and what she will do to Laura.
"Carmilla" is a true gothic novel in the best sense of the word -- a lushly-written little novella filled with ruined palaces, abandoned villages, moonlight and blood. And Le Fanu injects a not-so-subtle lesbian subtext into the story, since Carmilla seems to be as infatuated with Laura as she is hungry for her blood. Lots of kisses, adoring speeches, and Carmilla constantly creeping into Laura's bedroom.
And Le Fanu's writing is utterly exquisite. He swathes this eerie little story in a ghostly wrap of lush writing ("Over the sward and low grounds a thin film of mist was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a transparent veil") and some deeply creepy moments, such as Laura waking to see Carmilla covered in blood.
Le Fanu also sketches out his characters quickly and effectively, despite the novella's brevity. Laura is a sweet ordinary girl who seems both weirded out and entranced by Carmilla, and Carmilla herself is a larger-than-life character -- sensual, obsessive, vibrantly erotic and extremely creepy, except when she goes off on crazy rants about how much she hates hymns and funerals.
Stoker brought the vampire into the limelight, but "Carmilla" seductively introduced the vampire's eerie allure long before that. Luscious and eerie.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Carmilla is a novella by Sheridan Le Fanu. It is the finest vampire story in literature. Le Fanu's language is exquisite and his tone throughout the whole story is perfectly pitched. This is a perfect little gem. Within its own terms it is simply perfection. I urge you to read it and share my joy in this little masterpiece.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First published in 1872, Carmilla is a hugely influential vampire story told by a young girl called Laura, starved of the company of children her own age. After a coach crash not far from her castle home in Styria, her family agree to look after another young girl called Carmilla for a period of some months. Laura recognises the girl at once from a disturbing dream from years earlier. And Carmilla admits to having the same dream. In the nearby village the deaths begin.
The enduring literary emblem of the vampire was born when Bram Stoker gave the world Dracula in the last years of the 19th Century, birthed by a century obsessed by the Gothic imagery associated with the darker shadows of folklore and mythology. From the scatological excesses of penny dreadfuls like Varney the Vampyre, the crafted prose of Le Fanu's Carmilla and the like, the groundwork was already laid. Without one or the other of these two mismatched parents Stoker's Dracula would never have entered its creator's brain. But unlike Varney and other Victorian age vampires Carmilla survived to influence horror films and fiction beyond Stoker's famous Count. The 1960s and 1970s was awash with lurid adaptations of the Karnstein saga. If you have any interest at all in the history and development of vampire fiction or you just like well written Gothic fiction you should definitely give this a look. It's a short read and Le Fanu's prose is lighter and more accessible than some of his other works. I think it is one of his finest works
The enduring literary emblem of the vampire was born when Bram Stoker gave the world Dracula in the last years of the 19th Century, birthed by a century obsessed by the Gothic imagery associated with the darker shadows of folklore and mythology. From the scatological excesses of penny dreadfuls like Varney the Vampyre, the crafted prose of Le Fanu's Carmilla and the like, the groundwork was already laid. Without one or the other of these two mismatched parents Stoker's Dracula would never have entered its creator's brain. But unlike Varney and other Victorian age vampires Carmilla survived to influence horror films and fiction beyond Stoker's famous Count. The 1960s and 1970s was awash with lurid adaptations of the Karnstein saga. If you have any interest at all in the history and development of vampire fiction or you just like well written Gothic fiction you should definitely give this a look. It's a short read and Le Fanu's prose is lighter and more accessible than some of his other works. I think it is one of his finest works
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
great stuff
This is a wonderful vampire novella, with a real creepy, fantasy atmosphere, a key influence on Bram Stoker's Dracula a quarter of a century later. Great stuff. 5/5
Published 2 months ago by John Hopper
A Vampire Not for the Twilight-Hearted
Surely the Dracula before Dracula, Carmilla is as shocking for its gory gothic horror and psychological drama as it is for its avant garde content. Read more
Published 3 months ago by MaddieB
v good
Do you detest the whole Twilight saga interpretation of vampires and all this current nonsense which has vampires walking around at daylight emoting like teenagers ? Read more
Published 5 months ago by the dude
It Bites!
Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire but he might well have done so. In the century or so since his Dracula novel was published it has probably spawned more copycats, spin-offs,... Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. G. Lockhart
The Original Vampire Story!
Carmilla, the first and oldest of the Vampire Loar!
I'll assume you've read the synopsys for this book that Amazon provide, so I'll cut to the chase. Read more
I'll assume you've read the synopsys for this book that Amazon provide, so I'll cut to the chase. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2008 by Mr. Thomas M. Fletcher
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