Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
This is an old book,a classic. Published around 1872 and about 25 years before Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is a must read for all vampire lovers.
I would consider this to be quite mild compared to many of today's versions of the Genre but there are many elements that still come through to today.
One of these that shows up markedly in Camilla is the lustful sexual nature of vampirism. In this instance it is of particular note in that there are undertones of lesbianism within the writing. Although it is circumspect enough, understandable for the time it was written, that it could be construed as a relationship of very close friends. It could even be considered as a cautionary tale about such friendships leading to no good.
This also chronicles the nature of the vampire stalking its prey with a persistence and a predatory nature that borders on both excessive compulsion to strange desire. It plays into the hypnotic nature of the vampire to the intended victim and the almost helplessness of that victim to recognize the danger they are in.
We also see that little bit about poking fun at itself in that there is an added explanation that when the vampires are among society they look normal and health as opposed to pale cyanic.
In their casket and grave they are still somewhat lifelike faint breathing but are surrounded by a pool of blood.
To be killed, they are staked and beheaded.
The story takes place in Styria a state in Austria. Laura and her father live in a remote castle whose nearest neighbor is an abandoned village where the family of Karnstein once lived.
Laura begins her story by recounting a nightmare she had as a child where a strange but beautiful woman comes to her bed. It starts out as a delightful comforting experience until she feels two needles poke her near her breast.
Fast forward to a young adult and she shows us how isolated and lonely her home is. She is hopeful for a visit from their friend, General Spielsdorf's, niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt. Much to her horror and dismay a letter is received explaining Bertha's untimely death. All of this figures into the story.
As fortune might have it one day while enjoying the evening air and the moonlight. This scene sounds like its straight out of those old black and white movies we loved so much and stayed up late watching on tv. A mist like smoke over the low ground like a transparent veil. Only in the story Laura makes it sound beautiful instead of foreboding. A carriage, almost out of nowhere, arrives in a seeming hurry that causes it to have a near catastrophe.
From the carriage come a stately lady and her, purported, daughter. The lady has some immense secret emergency and she fears taking her injured and sickly daughter too far. This seems to play on Laura's father's sense of chivalry and he offers to take the girl into his home to have Laura's governess take care of her and to afford companionship for Laura.
It is not until later inside the castle home that Laura discovers the face of this woman matches the face in her dream. Despite the horror it gives her Laura is inexplicably drawn to this woman. They become fast friends though many times the liberty that Carmilla takes with that friendship cause Laura uneasy feelings.
Camilla seems to be afflicted with some sort of illness and always seems weak. She is paranoid and has to lock herself in her bedroom at night, alone. She doesn't rise until around noon. She often lapses into moods where she expresses a very deep affection for Laura.
When reports start coming in of some malady killing women in a nearby village and Laura begins to have dreams similar to the one she had so long ago. Laura begins to feel tired and desperate, thinking she may be suffering from the unexplained illness that is going around.
It is not until the General comes back to the area to visit that things begin to unfold and make sense. But, Laura is conflicted by here feelings for Carmilla when she hears what must be the truth.
There is an interesting, perhaps signature aspect in this story. The vampire seems to go by names that are anagrams of her original name. Millarca, Mircalla, and Carmilla.
Any aficionado of Vampires should read this book to delve into the root of the earliest published tales of this type of fiction.
If I have one disappointment from this; it's that there seem to be a group of people aiding this creature in getting ingratiated with their victims who are mentioned and noted in two different instances but we never know what their true role is in all of this.
J.L. Dobias
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I don’t mind the large page size because it leaves room to write notes but this is for sure not what I thought I was getting.. big boi
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 3, 2013
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2023
I don’t mind the large page size because it leaves room to write notes but this is for sure not what I thought I was getting.. big boi
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Top reviews from other countries
Elfzwolf
Not only did they use what looks like a font even worse than comic sans
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 25, 2018
Elfzwolf
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 25, 2018
Firstly, this edition isn't printed by devoted publishing. It's printed by Amazon's own paper reel, with 'printed by amazon' written at the back. I thought I was purchasing a unique edition by a new publisher, but it's not. The pages are -designed- by Devoted Publishing, but not printed by them.
Secondly, Devoted publishing isn't very devoted. Not only did they use what looks like a font even worse than comic sans, the summary at the back is also riddled with spelling mistakes (predates dracula BE 25 years? BE? Shouldn't that be BY?), clumsy grammar (there is no way an adult English-speaker wrote this), and incorrect assumptions about the story. As you can see, it looks like it was written using google translate.
For the price I thought this might qualify as a pretty display edition, but it doesn't. The cover might look good on the website, but in reality it's cheap cardboard and the book (despite being padded by a tonne of blank pages at the back) is too thin to stand up on it's own. Not only this, it doesn't have a spine. The entire thing is too thin to have anything printed on the spine. It feels like a pamphlet you'd pick up for free somewhere.
This all might be acceptable if the book was cheaper, perhaps covering the cost of the paper only. The story of Carmilla is free and in the public domain, so this company has taken it, put together a misspelled cheap pamphlet, and is attempting to make it look sophisticated/gothic by adding a few stock-image skulls to the pages and charging more than hardback price (£14) for what is in fact a free 43 page leaflet. Shameless.
Okay, the printed imagery on the pages is the only nice thing about this edition. But it's hard to enjoy them when basic formatting in the text itself is absent. The original text of Carmilla includes some examples of formatting, for example, italics, and some bold. The entire first chapter is written in italics, and there are numerous examples of other such formatting, obviously for emphasis, scattered throughout the rest of the story too. Not so in this edition. There is -none- of the original formatting present in the story, which ruins Le Fanu's original storytelling technique. I think I can correctly assume that this is because the story has been copy-pasted from the internet (a quick google search reveals it's been literally copy pasted from the first link that comes up on google) and whoever did it forgot to press 'include formatting' when they did it. As a long-time fan of this novel, seeing even the initial chapter butchered by this process by having the formatting and therefore the sense of haste and frenzy removed from it entirely is horrible to see.
To add insult to injury, there's a link at the start of the leaflet saying 'for bulk and educational theatre rates, please contact us'. As if printing this misspelled un-formatted cheap copy-pasted thing out in bulk and inflicting this on kids in school (as their first impression of the story) is a good idea. I wouldn't give this to anyone to read, especially not developing minds. Why can't the students just print out the first link on google, like this company did? They surely couldn't mess it up any more.
And as for using it in the theatre, how would any actor know how to deliver their lines if the basic formatting and emphasis has been omitted completely? ('Am I supposed to be angry here? Am I supposed to be happy? Is this line supposed to be rushed? Slow? Is this word meant to have emphasis? I don't know, because all the formatting is gone!') Le Fanu is turning in his grave.
I wouldn't be so annoyed about this edition if the book wasn't so expensive. A price set roughly around a quarter of the original would be fair for this book. Don't buy anything from devoted publishing. Save yourself the trouble and just print it out yourself. You'll probably do a better job.
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Mr Christopher Fernandez-Packham
Fantastic version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 17, 2020
Beverley
Enjoyable Gothic Fun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 10, 2015
