After seeing and becoming obsessed with Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (2024) over winter break, I was deeply inspired to revisit some of my favorite novels all about, you guessed it, vampires! Although “Dracula” certainly deserves its praise, and “Twilight” deserves its general ridicule, there is one vampiric text that I feel is dangerously underrated: J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 gothic novella “Carmilla.”
“Carmilla” is about a young woman — who also happens to live in a centuries-old castle — named Laura who is desperate for a friend. One night, while on a walk with her father, Laura witnesses a carriage accident involving a woman and her daughter, Carmilla. Carmilla is injured in the accident, so Laura and her father offer to let Carmilla stay with them until she recovers, and that’s when the story really begins.
The prose in “Carmilla” is to the point but extremely vivid, with the gothic Austrian castle setting seeping beautifully into every page. Le Fanu’s writing can only be described as “quick,” forcing the reader to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. Both times I’ve read “Carmilla” it has been in one sitting, and I can’t recommend a better way to read this book for the first time.
The way that Le Fanu writes about Laura and Carmilla’s relationship is so interesting to read. The sapphic subtext is quite ahead of its time in many ways and done remarkably well for a book written by a man from the 19th century.
Laura is a fine main character. She does her job well in the role of the innocent, sheltered young woman who desires more adventure than her life has to offer.
The real star of the show though, is the titular character. Carmilla is the enigmatic center of the narrative.
Carmilla is — spoiler alert! — a vampire, but the way Le Fanu articulates this is much more subtle and intriguing than what can be seen in other works of vampire fiction. Many cite “Carmilla” as the blueprint for vampire novels, and it lives up to the expectation of being the first of its kind. The pace, the characters and the plot are all so fleshed out for a book that barely reaches 150 pages.
My only real criticism of “Carmilla” is that I wish it was longer. Even though it works beautifully as a novella, I think this story had the legs to be a full novel if Le Fanu had decided to go in that direction. Selfishly, because I love it, I kind of wish he had, but alas, what can I do?
In all seriousness, as much as I adore “Dracula,” I really believe that it is a shame that “Carmilla” is not talked about more when we talk about literary vampires. Many believe that Dracula as a concept is synonymous with the invention of the vampire in long-form fiction when Carmilla is really the first of her kind.
“Carmilla” is a real piece of history behind creating one of the most iconic archetypes in the horror genre, and for my fellow vampire lovers, “Carmilla” really is a must-read.
