Blurb from NetGalley, which provided me with a copy of the Deluxe Version of Carmilla:
‘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…
I should probably be a little ashamed that I haven’t read this vampire novella, written by the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, a lot sooner. Published in 1872, Carmilla predates Dracula by over 20 years. It’s a very readable story and, in some senses, it’s a very familiar story. A young, attractive woman comes to stay with Laura, our narrator, and her father in a remote castle in Austria and strange things begin to happen. Laura has visions, or nightmares, and begins to feel unwell, while all the while a strange plague seems to be affecting female villagers.
I’ve read enough vampire novels and watched enough vampire movies and TV shows to know exactly how this novella was going to go. While any twenty-first century reader knows how a story like this will unfold, as well as what Carmilla really is, there’s still a delightful sense of foreboding and dread throughout, particularly as we learn more about a tragedy that befell another young woman, in the recent past..
What’s also striking about this book, of course, is that it’s a romance and, while it may have been written in the late nineteenth century, it’s not particularly subtle. Carmilla is mysterious and seductive, and Laura is attracted to her, even as she’s completely unnerved by her. I absolutely recommend this book for anyone else who, like me, has missed out on reading it, or for anyone who fancies a little gothic lesbian vampire romp, without resorting to Lesbian Vampire Killers.
Rating: 5 stars (it’s the grandmother of vampire novels, after all).
TL;DR: Gothic horror lives up to queer vampire reputation.
whelmed.blog 