Carmilla
Ratings348
Average rating3.8
This is a pretty short book.
Although it was written over 20 years before Dracula, it has a similar style.
It emphasizes the romance aspect of vampires more than the horror.
There is a general problem I have with books from this time period in that the culture is so different from mine that it could be another planet.
To start the book, the narrator and her father see a passing carriage have an accident.
In a few minutes, a women leaves her daughter with the narrator for 3 months.
No contact information is exchanged, we don't even get the name of the mother.
This is not portrayed as being unusual, just the sort of thing you did then.
“Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 26 years.”
I find the anagram game fascinating:
“The vampire is, apparently, subject, in certain situations, to special conditions. In the particular instance of which I have given you a relation, Mircalla seemed to be limited to a name which, if not her real one, should at least reproduce, without the omission or addition of a single letter, those, as we say, anagrammatically, which compose it.”
sigh
Would never not want to listen to David Tennant's Irish accent. A decent story, amazing how this was written before Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Searching for more narrations by David, right now. Allons-y!
Listened to the full cast dramatization from Audible. Loved it, except that the music was overdone.
This was a fantastic, short little vampire tale! While reading it, you can definitely see a lot of the tropes common to more recent vampire stories, but seeing tropes being first established is something I always find interest. The narration of the story seems much more fresh and contemporary than most Victorian literature, and it was interesting to see such explicit lesbian content from an era that mostly frowned upon it.
This was for my PopSugar reading challenge, and fulfills the “A book at least 100 years older than you” requirement - in fact this is almost exactly 100 years older than me, and I finished it on my birthday. Appropriate!
This was a lot of fun. Anyone with a passing knowledge of vampire fiction will see exactly what's going on in short order, and it might be tempting to complain that this uses a lot of tired tropes. But of course, this was preceded by only a few examples of vampire literature, and was a key point in the development from vampire folklore to modern vampire fiction. So it's not derivative, it's seminal! OK, the anagrammed names were silly - I'm glad that “rule” of vampires didn't catch on.
Surprisingly readable for something written in 1872, it was quick to get through, and didn't overstay its welcome. I definitely recommend this for anyone with an interest in the genre.
Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 26 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871–72), its narrator is a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla.
I don't read a lot of old books/classics; I usually find the writing style too laborious. I had no problem with this one at all however, it was very readable.
I would have given it 2.5 stars if that were an option.