Carmilla
€0,00
First published in 1872, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla is one of the foundational works of vampire fiction, written more than two decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Laura, a young woman living with her father in an isolated Austrian castle, finds her sheltered existence transformed by the arrival of Carmilla, a beautiful and enigmatic stranger. Their intense friendship gradually acquires a disturbing quality as Laura experiences strange illnesses, unsettling dreams and an attraction she cannot readily explain.
Le Fanu’s novella draws its power from atmosphere, ambiguity and the uneasy proximity of desire and danger. Its decaying aristocratic setting, folklore and slow accumulation of dread anticipate many conventions of later Gothic horror, while its portrayal of intimacy between women has made it an enduring subject of queer literary interpretation. More subtle than the spectacular vampire tales that followed, Carmilla leaves much of its terror in suggestion and psychological uncertainty. It remains a defining achievement of Victorian Gothic fiction and a vital precursor to the modern vampire myth.
From the book
“The first change I experienced was rather pleasant than otherwise.”
— Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla
On Carmilla
“One of the early works of vampire fiction.”
— Tufts University, English Gothic Fiction research guide