Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873)

I had anticipated a slog, but was pleasantly surprised! For its faults, I found this a pretty solid Victorian crime thriller. Though I read Le Fanu’s novels hoping to see some of the horror elements of his quite scary short fiction, I’m slowly accepting that human horrors are what he’s concerned with most of the time outside of short stories.
As others have mentioned, the narration style is bizarre as Le Fanu chose to make his narrator a character, but declined to develop that show more character or include him in most of the action, and switched between first person and omniscient narration in the same chapter sometimes. If Le Fanu had edited out 75% of the sentences containing the word “futurity” as well as the incessant duplicate physical descriptions of the main characters every time they reappear (Stanley’s yellow eyes, Larkin’s dove-like eyes and oblong head), he would have had more room to unfold major events instead of reporting that they had occurred and that he did not know how. Were there not editors back in the day?
The primary female character(s) here are, amazingly, developed with a depth and force of character very unusual for Le Fanu or Dickens, which allowed me to invest in the story to a degree I wouldn’t have otherwise. I wished more of the action had included the heroine rather than the movements of the antagonists. show less

A quarter of a century before Bram Stoker unleashed Count Dracula upon an unsuspecting London, Sheridan Le Fanu wrote of a strange, beautiful, irresistible young woman who once visited her malign charms on a widower and his daughter in an isolated Austrian schloss.

The influence on Stoker is undeniable: the epistolary frame of the narrative, the roots of vampirism in ancient Eastern European nobility, the snake-like charm of the vampire, the utter unpreparedness of rational and Christian show more Europe to comprehend the nature of the primal evil that stalks its heart. Le Fanu even has a remorseless vampire hunter on Carmilla’s trail in the form of a grief-stricken general.

This is Dracula before Dracula, and it has its own peculiarly seductive and haunting quality that makes it a worthy read for anyone who enjoys the genre. show less

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla feels more Gothic to me than many books that are traditionally placed in the Gothic genre. This is a novel of castles, graveyards, ruined villages, misty morning walks, family histories, and ancient evils that refuse to stay buried. The atmosphere is the star of the book.

Modern readers come to Carmilla already knowing that Carmilla is a vampire, but surprisingly, that doesn't hurt the story. Le Fanu hints very early that something is wrong. Laura's show more childhood dream, the mysterious illness affecting young women, Carmilla's strange behavior, her disappearances, and her refusal to explain her past all point in the same direction. Laura herself repeatedly recognizes that something about Carmilla is unsettling, but she lacks the freedom, authority, and social standing to investigate those feelings. Instead, she does what many people do when confronted with something they cannot explain: she continues.

What makes the novella work is that the central question is not "What is Carmilla?" but "Will Carmilla get away with it again?" The story gradually reveals that Laura is only the latest victim in a cycle that has likely repeated for generations. The suspense comes from whether anyone will recognize the pattern before it is too late.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is how Victorian politeness becomes part of the horror. Everyone notices warning signs, but no one wants to be rude. Carmilla's refusal to discuss her past is accepted. Her strange moods are tolerated. Her disappearances are excused. She succeeds not because the people around her are foolish, but because they are determined to behave properly. In a strange way, they almost out-polite themselves.

I also read Carmilla less as a romance and more as a story of vampiric fascination. By the end, Laura herself suggests that what she felt was not love but something darker and more supernatural. Whether readers agree with her is open to interpretation, but I found that explanation convincing. Carmilla feels less like a person pursuing a relationship and more like an ancient predator using intimacy as a means of access. The atmosphere, the history, and the centuries-old cycle mattered more to me than any romantic reading.

As a piece of Gothic fiction, Carmilla remains remarkably effective. The mystery may be obvious, but the mood is unforgettable. The castles, forests, graveyards, and lingering sense of the past pressing against the present create a world that feels genuinely haunted. More than a vampire story, Carmilla is a story about place, memory, and the fear that some evils have been walking these roads for far longer than anyone remembers. show less

A young woman named Laura lives alone with her father in a remote Austrian castle, lonely because her only friend of her age and class recently died under mysterious circumstances. She’s delighted when a carriage overturns near the castle and a young woman named Carmilla must stay with them for a few months while she recovers. Carmilla won’t share any information about her past, does not participate in family prayers, and sleeps most of the day. Laura and Carmilla grow very close, show more physically and emotionally, and Laura realizes Carmilla looks exactly like her ancient ancestor Countess Mircalla. Young women in the nearby village are dying, and Laura falls ill, so her father takes her out of town for a few days. There they learn the true fate of Laura’s dead friend, at the hands (or teeth) of a new acquaintance named Millarca.

A fun, short read. So many of the modern-day tropes about vampires are explicit here, 25 years before Dracula was written. A female vampire is not something that was seen often for the next century, and her vampirism is also sexual, but in a very different way from that of traditional male vampires - she’s very emotional, often telling Laura how much they need each other and how they’ll die without each other. The vampirism itself is also much more focused on Carmilla hugging Laura’s neck than the penetration itself. Historically interesting, but also just entertaining and an easy read! If you haven’t read it before, you really should. The audiobook, read by Megan Follows, was excellent. show less