CARMILLA by Sheridan Le Fanu

A Gothic novel, written in 1872 by Sheridan Le Fanu, an Ireland author.

Plot:
  A seven-year-old girl, Laure talks about her horrible dream in which she is bitten on the chest. 12 years later she meets Carmilla, whose mother leaves her under care of Laura’s father. Her father’s friend, General Spielsdorf, visits and tells him about his daughter, who was victimized by a vampire. Carmilla hates Christian songs, disappears out of her locked room, looks languid, and always wakes up in the afternoon. She caresses Laure intimately. The father, the general, and vampire specialist, Baron Vordenburg, visit a decayed castle and locate Mircalla, Countess Karnstein’s grave. Mircalla is an anagram of Carmilla. Carmilla turns out to be a vampire and is finally destroyed.

Impression:

   Carmilla was written 25 years before Bram Stalker’s Dracula. It means Dracula was inspired by Carmilla. Vampirism goes back to prehistoric times and is recorded in many cultures. La Fanu utilized vampirism into a novel.
   Since I did not know that Carmilla was a vampire story, I was intrigued by the horror while I was reading the first 50 pages or so. I even felt a shiver going down my back. However, after I discovered that the story was based on vampirism in the latter half of the book, I was less interested and horrified.
   The readers in 1872 must have enjoyed the story. The present people are immune to vampire stories. I should have been excited to read Carmilla in 1872.

Problems:

1. The reason why Carmilla’s mother left her after the carriage accident is not explained.

2. Why did Millarca’s mother leave her under General’s care to attend to a secret matter?

3. Carmilla’s mother and Millarca’s mother mother do the same thing. Le Fanu does not explain why. Repetition makes the reader boring.

4. Who was the gentleman at a costume ball?

5. Near the end of the story Le Fanu elaborates vampirism too much that the flow of story stops.