‘Carmilla’ is a short, yet strangely satisfying, novella that serves as a precursor to Gothic favourite ‘Dracula’.
In Le Fanu’s story we see the seduction of Laura, the young Englishwoman who lives in a remote scholss in Austria, by Carmilla. This strange young woman appears – seemingly out of nowhere – and is taken in by Laura’s father. Carmilla is not what she seems, and Laura is convinced she met her many years ago in a dream. Cue what have become vampiric favourites: the night-time visit; the bite; the yearning for a forbidden love; the wasting away and the sense of repressed sexuality.
While the style is rather melodramatic now, I was intrigued by Le Fanu’s attempt to explore distinctly antisocial feelings for the time in which he was writing. While I understand why he didn’t focus on the relationship between Carmilla and Laura, there was a part of me that wanted to know how that relationship would resolve itself.