No cover

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla (EBook, 2021, Pushkin Press)

eBook

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2021 by Pushkin Press.

4 stars (2 reviews)

Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in the sexual tension between two young women and gothic romance.

A deluxe gift edition of the cult classic that predated and greatly influenced Dracula and much vampire literature that followed, including Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, teenaged Laura leads a solitary life with only her father, attendant and tutor for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest -- the beautiful Carmilla.

So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her entrancing new companion, one defined by mysterious happenings and infused with an implicit but undeniable eroticism. As Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day...

121 editions

no wonder it's a classic

4 stars

devoured this as an audiobook over less than a week. it's a good book of a comfortable length! yes, it's got its clunky parts (especially that last chapter that feels obligated to provide explanations to stuff that really didn't need too much of an explanation or that could have better been explained throughout), but i feel like that is mostly an issue of different stylistic expectations over a 150 year gap. still though, i enjoyed the book, as evident by the speed i read it, and it's nice to catch up on what is a vital piece of both vampire, gothic and lesbian literature.

Subjects

  • Lesbians
  • Vampires
  • Fiction, horror
  • Fiction, mystery & detective, general
  • Austria, fiction
  • Vampires, fiction
  • Gothic Fiction
  • Horror
  • Ireland, fiction