Carmilla

Original Title: Carmilla

Turkish Title: Carmilla

English Title: Carmilla

Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Pages: 112

My Rating: 3/5

WHY THIS BOOK?

I was in the mood of buying a vampire book but didn’t have anything particular in mind. This one’s length and cover was convincing enough.

THE STORY:

Laura is a lonely English woman who lives with her father and her governess in an ancient castle in Styria. Having heard of the sudden death of a prospective guest, Bertha Reinfeldt, Laura and her company decide to go out to enjoy a full-moon night. They come across an out-of-control carriage suddenly. An unconscious woman, Carmilla is thrown out from the carriage. Carmilla’s so-called mother, who claims to be a noblewoman, continues her journey on a secret mission and leaves Carmilla behind to recover in Laura’s father’s castle.

What goes on between Laura and Carmilla is the core story…

MY COMMENTS:

This vampire novella was originally published in 1872. It is one of the first vampire novellas written preceding Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Knowing this fact, I couldn’t stop comparing this book with Dracula and at the end I couldn’t like it as much. Although there were many similarities between two books (vampire hunters, innocent female victims), I didn’t find the story as complex and in-depth as Dracula.

What I liked most is the way Le Fanu portrayed his vampire: Carmilla was not described as a supernatural evil but as a not-well-understood creature that behaves like any other predator. What I liked least was the untold affair between predator, Carmilla and her prey, Laura. You feel that it is mora than that of a killer and a victim. There is some sympathy, there is some consent. Still, the lst chapters of the novella fail to conclude Carmilla’s vampirism and the dark romance between Carmilla and Laura.

APPLICABLE CHALLENGES:

I finished reading it on June 12 so I can count it for Spring Reading Thing 2012.  

It was my first Sheridan Le Fanu novella so I can count it for New Author Challenge.