[Spoiler at the end, read at your own risk.]Seems like lately I never can keep track of how I found out about a particular book. The last thing I read was about Lincoln and flatboats so I'm pretty sure it wasn't that which led me to Carmilla.Anyway, whatever it was, I'm glad it happened. Of course the first thing I heard is, "This is the book that influenced Stoker to write Dracula" and that alone of course was reason to read it. I felt kind of stupid for never having heard of it before - I just always kind of assumed that modern literary vampire novels started with Stoker. He's always referenced as the father of the genre. So, with that assumption in place I figured that Carmilla wouldn't be much in the way of what we consider a modern vampire tale, maybe instead a little folk story or something.Well, I was wrong, and wrong in many ways, the first of which is that it is a full-fledged "modern" vampire novella. The narrative is a little lumpy in parts - I don't see why Le Fanu thought it necessary to tell Laura's tale completely and then have General Spielsdorf show up, say, "My daughter was affected by something in exactly the same way" and then have him tell his exact same tale all the way through. At every sentence I expected Laura to say, "And then he told us and the shocking similarities to my own experiences was too much!" but no, Le Fanu gives us the whole thing all over again.I admit, though, that I'm viewing this through the lens of the culture that has existed since I've been a reader. The 1970s and 80s certainly had their fill of vampire movies and it's become a cliche: is there a young lady who falls ill over the course of several nights and eventually dies? Vampire, obviously. I had to remember that to Le Fanu's original readership this was all brand new, and the fact that the story opened with this exact plot point mentioned in passing wasn't a dead giveaway but the nexus of generations of stories.(okay I'm sure that some of his readers had passing knowledge of vampire folklore but I'd wager it wasn't instilled in every single one of them since they were old enough to consume media up to and including breakfast cereal boxes and children's television puppets)More unexpected to me, though, was the existence of a few genuinely creepy passages. I mean I know that people in the late 19th and early 20th century knew how to write horror fiction - see my past year's reviews to see how much I have indulged in M. R. James, Robert Chambers, Henry James, Algernon Blackwood, and even Ambrose Bierce. I love it. Still, I just didn't expect it here. I guess that goes back to me thinking it was just going to be a little folk tale or whatever. Some of the scenes of the vampire feeding were flesh-crawly, including the humans' sense that she was able to move without moving, or be places it really wasn't.Most shocking of all was the thinly-veiled - and I mean thinly - sexuality. I understand that the industrial revolution began a liberalization of sexuality but I didn't expect that a relatively mainstream book from 1872 would have passages like:... my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever"Wow. I hadn't expected to read about a female vampire physically seducing her female prey like that, and Le Fanu's accompanying explanation that this kind of infatuation and lust was par for the course, that the vampire hungered for the physical as well as the blood. That quote above is about as graphic as it got, but I'm sure it generated ample imagery in the minds of the readers of that time.Finally, I have to say that I was pleased that there was an aspect of the vampire story here that I've not seen used in any of the tales I've read that have been written since. In short, there was a man who knew and loved Carmilla before she became a vampire. He molded himself into a vampire hunter and dispatched all of the other bloodsuckers in the area, but he didn't kill her. His passion for what she had been before clouded his ability to see her for what she had become, and he went so far as to tell the locals that he'd killed her while secretly he obscured her grave so that no one else would come and find her. There was no interaction between the two after her transformation. This wasn't a vampire / human love story. He was well aware that she was a horrific monster now ... he just couldn't let go of the past. I enjoyed that.I enjoyed that, and the entire rest of the story, and I would recommend it highly.
Bloody relevant to read! BEFORE DRACULA, THERE WAS... But to die as lovers may - to die together, so that they may live together.This is a very important book in historic sense, in the genre of vampire reading, due that it was published 25 years before than Dracula. Also, it presented lesbian situations, easily one of the first open mentions of the topic in literature.So, it was a pioneer book in two subjects: Vampires and Lesbian literature.Some may wonder how it was possible to publish a book with lesbian issues in 1872.Joseph Sheridan Le Fanú was ingenious in that, since when he was asked about, he just replied that it wasn't a homosexual situation since Carmilla was a vampire and due that, it was a creature without sexual genre.Sneaky devil this Le Fanu!Of course, that was a trick by the author but it worked since the book didn't have any trouble to be published in those times when there was a extremely close-minded attitude.And certainly the importance of the book to the eventual sucess of Bram Stoker's novel was fundamental.Without Carmilla there weren't Dracula and due that maybe there weren't a vampire sub-genre in the horror books that now it's one of the strongest subjects in modern paranormal literature. BRITISH GOTHIC Nevertheless, life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either.Le Fanú also was the father of the Gothic horror of Britain establishing the style of how that kind of literature would be written even on these days.Maybe the only trouble with Carmilla to be read by current readers is its form of mystery that it's impossible that anybody would pick nowadays this particular novel to read without the previous knowledge that Carmilla is a vampire, and due that, the reader felt like reading a mystery where one already knows the answer to the mystery.The clues to the real nature of Carmilla are elegant and stylish but too evident for any reader familiar with vampire-related similar books, movies, TV series, etc...It's clear that Carmilla started all and the reality is that anybody else copied FROM it, but sadly, in many case, readers find the book way after of being already too familiar with the general world of vampires, diminishing the shock that the book could ever do.However, it's still an important book in literature history.
What do You think about Carmilla (2000)?
Why I always feel drawn towards evil? Why Can't I be a good girl that sees the wicked ways and wish for a happy ending where the bad people get what they deserve? Why must I feel for those who hurt and prey on the innocent with no regret what so ever?I didn't chose to read this book, it chose me and I can't say how or why. Fate brought it in to my way and I fell in its trap like a moth into the flame.The plot - A girl (Laura) is lonely and longs for a company to talk and be friends with. Then comes Carmilla and she is just such a lovely and enchanted girl that everyone simply falls for her. But behind her perfect veneer is a terrifying and brutal secret. It's a plot full of mystery and very well developed. It reminded me in a few points of Dracula, but not that much.The Characters - Laura is the innocent and lovable girl, but there is not much that shows about what she feels. She loves her father and got swept of her feet for this stranger that enters her life. Carmilla on the other hand is portrayed as this tridimensional character that feels intensely everything around her and have many mood swings. The writing - This book is from 1872, but I found the writing so incredibly forward and easy to get lost in it. It's description was so vivid that for many times I catch my self gasping and holding my breath for what it would come next. The images were very well burn into my mind and if I close my eyes I can still see the blood drenching the white fabric and around her neck.Considerations - Although I really liked this book, I must say that I'm not so sure about the ending of it. It felt as if it was rushed and didn't fit whit the rest of the story. Well, this is as much I can say without giving away the story. The audio book recording (librivox.com)- The reading was so smooth and really nice to listen to. The intonation of the voice and the interpretation of the text were really good. I believe that it made all the difference in my opinion of the book.I recommend this to all people that likes vampire stories, classical vampire stories.
—E.V.Franzmnn E.V.Franzmnn
'Jamás desistirá hasta haber saciado su pasión y succionado la vida misma de su codiciada víctima. Pero, en esos casos, economizará y prolongará su disfrute asesino con un refinamiento epicúreo, realzado por las aproximaciones graduales de un complicado galanteo.' Ya el mismo nombre del lugar donde se desarrolla la trama, Estiria, inicia el proceso de complicidad que Le Fanu pretende del lector: ambientación turbadora, atmósfera desolada y opresiva, paisaje inmenso y fantasmagórico... Tan fantasmagórico como lo es el alma difusa de Carmilla. Carmilla, ese vástago abandonado de una estirpe maldita, personaje de marcada dualidad moral que provoca contradictorios sentimientos de intenso placer y acentuado desasosiego, melancolía y languidez con una carga sexual evidente y un erotismo que se extiende por todo el relato, al igual que lo hace la luna y su resplandor enfermizo iluminando constantemente espacios y personajes. Con Le Fanu prevalece el presentimiento de que lo maligno y lo ominoso descansan en el sueño más que en la misma realidad, como si fuera en el océano del inconsciente donde se desarrollara la trama oculta y paralela, el origen irracional y genuino del desarrollo de los hechos. Mejor insinuar un misterio que intentar argumentarlo: es una lástima la precipitación con que se resuelve la historia; demasiados datos, demasiados acontecimientos, demasiadas aclaraciones (quizá innecesarias si se pretende mantener la fascinación y la tensión dramática). Es el ilusionismo el que surte efecto, no su explicación.
—Camille Stein
For English, please visit Community BookStop.Orijinali canlabirsene ve Zimlicious'ta yayınlandı.Asabi bir ergenken Bram Stoker’ın kaleme aldığı Dracula’yı okuduğum günden beri içinde vampir olan her şeye hop diye atlıyorum; durduramıyorum kendimi. Eskiden, yani yine ben ergenken, pek de kolay bulunmuyordu böyle şeyler. Sonrasında Twilight’ın patlamasıyla (ki o seriyi bile zevkle okudum; vampir açlığıma veriyorum) coşup gittiler. Aslında iyi bir şey olması lazımdı bunun, özellikle benim gibi okurlar için. Ancak “insan kanı içmeyen vampirler” veya “insanlığını özleyen vampirler” ya da “insanlara özenen vampirler” derken iş iyice zıvanadan çıktı. Vampirliğin özü kayboldu resmen. İşte Carmilla, bana vampirleri ve bu hikayelerin beni neden heyecanlandırdığını tekrar hatırlattı.Zaten hikaye Avrupa’da bir şatoda (kitaptaki adıyla ‘schloss’) başlayınca daha kafadan bir heyecan bastı beni. Babasıyla ve hizmetçileriyle bu şatoda yaşayan genç bir kız… Birdenbire misafirleri olan, büyüleyici güzellikte, tuhaf huylara sahip bir misafir, Carmilla… Biz ‘babaya yavşar bu’ derken kıza sulanan bir misafir hatta… Ürkütücü binalar, kasvetli sokaklar, gri ormanlar ve kana olan açlığın yanı sıra akıl oyunları… Tam bir gotik vampir hikayesi yani!Kitabın tanıtımında “Sheridan Le Fanu’nun kadınları, karanlığa eğilimleri ve ölüme yakınlıklarıyla, içimizdeki vampire ayna tutuyor” diye bir cümle var. Bunu da ana karakterimiz Laura ile babasına bakınca açıkça görebiliyoruz; Laura, biraz yaşından da olsa gerek bilinmeyene, karanlığa inanmaya daha meyilli. Babası ise her şeyi bilime bağlamaya meraklı. Le Fanu, son zamanlardaki pek çok örneğin tam tersine kan ve vahşet ile sekse değil, psikolojik gerilime ve karakterlerin içine işleyen karanlığa odaklanıyor.“Edebiyatın ilk lezbiyen vampiri” Carmilla, atmosferiyle, bilinmezlikleriyle, tesadüfleriyle şaşırtacak sizi. Eğer Dracula’yı okuduysanız da Bram Stoker’ın bu kitaptan ne kadar etkilendiğini açıkça göreceksiniz. Bazı sahneler pat pat gelecek gözlerinizin önüne. Böyle orijinal bir hikaye bana çok iyi geldi açıkçası, umarım size de iyi gelir.
—Simay Yildiz
