Did you know that there was a short novel featuring a female vampire written before Dracula? Carmilla is the story of a young Victorian woman named Laura who lives with her father in the remote Austrian countryside. When one day they happen upon a mother and her daughter in distress while travelling, they offer to take in the daughter to recover at their home. An intensely deep friendship follows, between Laura and the young women, Carmilla; meanwhile some creepy and disturbingly bad things start to happen to the locals and neighbours around them. I’m not quite sure how this story fits into the vampire canon, and whether it inspired or took inspiration from much of the lore that we know of that subgenre, but the story is a nicely written Victorian Gothic novel. I generally like this group of novels that include Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins, and of course, Dracula by Bram Stoker. While I have read most of those books (with the unfortunate exception of Dracula), I am definitely no expert in Victorian Gothic fiction, but I do like the writing style: polite, ornamented words and passionate, intense character emotions.

While Carmilla was enjoyable to read, I also found that the story was a bit weak and there were too many contrivances used to cover up gaps in the plot. Not much really happens as we follow the story from Laura’s point of view as she spends time with their houseguest, Carmilla. One of the early contrivances is that she and her father are not allowed to ask Carmilla about herself or where she’s from. I suppose that’s something that might have been acceptable in Victorian society where people are trusting and willing to accept each other at face value. But obviously to modern sensibilities this seems like a red flag. As the clues start to pile up, I think even the narrative is making the truth about Carmilla’s vampiric nature seem very obvious. Nevertheless, the story goes on with the household in ignorance even with reports from the neighbours all talking about people getting sick and dying, and mysterious sightings of female figures or other monstrous, creepy sights. In a very interesting way, the story made me think about this fictional, horror-story situation (i.e. you’re living with a vampire) from the perspective of Laura, who is growing in affection for Carmilla. Are we meant to see Laura as just denying the obvious, or is she so overcome with love that nothing else matters? In that context, this short novel was way out there and daring for its time. I don’t know how well it was received when it was first published, but I guess it’s something to note that it was so completely eclipsed by Dracula, published 25 years after it, that even today it is more of a rediscovered, underground Gothic classic than the seminal hallmark of vampire fiction that it might have been. 

As I’ve long passed my days of assignments for Victorian Literature: English 301, this story is not any kind of required reading, but despite an ending that disappointingly fizzles out, I think this is a fun, short read and a nice piece of horror fiction that captures all the moods and feels of the Gothic genre. It’s not very long, and something nice to get your fangs wet before (or without) diving into the dark, murky pages of Dracula. An additional note: I enjoyed the original text (in audiobook form) along with a dramatized version of the book, produced by Audible, featuring such notable stars as Rose Leslie and David Tennant (as Laura and her father). Their performances added a nice cinematic flair to the story, especially Leslie. (Also, there was an added breathiness to Leslie’s delivery of certain scenes that very much leaned into the sapphic and erotic undertones of the book — so there’s that.)

3.5 stars

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