miguel-se7

Given that halloween has just passed us and that I am a big fan of vampire stories, from Bram Stoker's Dracula, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In, to Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian; I decided that this week we will be focusing on John Sheridan Le Fanu and his Gothic Horror novella Carmilla.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer renowned for his Gothic and Horror tales. Known as 'The Invisible Prince' due to his reclusive habits, he was a master of the supernatural tale, and his works have served as influence for plenty of authors. Among his best known works is the novella Carmilla.

The story follows a young woman, Laura, who becomes the prey of the female vampire Carmilla, whom is introduced into our protagonist's home as a guest after a freak accident. Laura quickly befriends Carmilla, giving place to an interesting dynamic between the two, all the while in the villages nearby, young women start to die of an unknown disease.

Carmilla is a pretty fascinating read due to its historic importance alone, it was published 25 years before Dracula and as such it has a heavy influence on Bram Stoker's classic novel, plus it features some lesbian situations between the two female protagonists, a theme practically unheard of at the time it was published.

This one is a bit longer than our previous entries, spanning around 100 pages long depending on the version you get, but it still should be manageable within a week. You can download the full work from here. You can find the rest of the entries to my Weekly Reading Series here.

See below for some of my favorite quotes from Carmilla.

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