Carmilla

Rating:
Summary: Highly Influential Novella
Review: After seeing numerous films which all contain the Carmilla female vampire character, I was curious to check out the original material. As soon as I found out that the book actually predates Dracula I deiced it is a must read. As the phenomanly popular Dracula set ground rules for vampires which are so rarely deviated from in both literature and film, despite the fact that European vampyre lore varies dramticly in each region, I was curious to see how the vampire was portrayed before Bram Stoker.

Carmilla certainly is different. Both the vampire's appearnce and methods differ enormously from Count Dracula and his many spin offs. It is impossible to explain the story with out giving too much away as this is such a short story.

Carmilla is, I feel, influential in an interesting way. There are nowhere near as many direct film incarnations of Carmilla as there are of Dracula, 'Vampire Lovers' is a fairly direct adaptation of the novella (the Midnight Movies double feature disc Countess Dracula/Vampire Lovers has a special feature with actress Ingrid Pitt reading from Carmilla), the Carmilla character has a big part in 'Blood Spattered Bride' and also Carmilla makes a brief appearance in 'Twins of Evil'. However there is a heavy lesbian overtone present in Carmilla which while tame today was sure to be racy at the time of writing. It seems that this principle has being carried over into film just as faithfully as Bram Stoker's sunlight destroys vampires rule (in Carmilla vampires can walk around in the sun). Thus thanks to Carmilla, whenever there is a female vampire in any film she is automatically a lesbian! Some of my favourites are 'Vampyros Lesbos', 'Vampyres', 'Female Vampire', 'Shivers of the Vampire' and of course the previously mentioned Carmilla films.

I am glad I read Carmilla, it is an interesting and well written novella with a different take on vampires which is fresh and original due to it being older. In retrospect Carmilla has also spawned the beloved lesbian vampire film genre and it was awesome to read about the first lesbian vampire ever!

Rating:
Summary: Carmilla is the best vampire sotory ever
Review: Carmilla is incredibly short by modern standards. A victorian novel that **predates** anything Braum Sotker did - this classic was heavilly plagarized by Stoker (much to his credit for having excellent taste). This is a must read in its original form. If you do enjoy this novella you will probably also highly enjoy "La Horla", which is probably the second best vampire story ever penned.

Rating:
Summary: "Dracula" is the greatest but "Carmilla" is the best.
Review: Every Halloween I like to re-read the first 4 chapters of "Dracula." Those 4 chapters create the greatest vampire story ever written. However after the first 4 chapters Bram Stoker's epistilary style bogs down, becomes tiring and very out of date. Thirty years ago I discovered LeFanu's novelette, "Carmilla" and found the best vampire story that can be read.
Carmilla was written over 130 years ago but still bears the marks of a stylish and well crafted story. LeFanu, an Irish writer, created a cursed family whose vamire descendant preys on two modern (for the 19th century) families. The story is rich in atmosphere and is filled with the vampire trappings that Bram Stoker later wove into Dracula. But the best feature of Carmilla is similar to the best feature of Dracula---they both create really evil vampire figures. But there is a complexity to Carmilla that has been argued by readers for 130 years. Is there a lesbian touch to Carmilla or is it a straight (no pun) forward vampire story? LeFanu teases the reader with a story that must have thrilled the Victorian world that first read Carmilla.
I must say that if I were going out to buy Carmilla I would turn to the Dover publication of, "The Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu." The Dover edition has several other ghost stories by LeFanu and Carmilla has some of the original illustrations that appeared in British periodicals.
If your taste is for vampire stories Carmilla, like the first 4 chapters of Dracula, is a great horror reading. Both show us powerful vampire villians. Both build to wonderful horror climaxes. Both show us that you have to be Irish to create a great vampire story. Halloween is always coming.

Rating:
Summary: "Dracula" is the greatest but "Carmilla" is the best.
Review: Every Halloween I like to re-read the first 4 chapters of "Dracula." Those 4 chapters create the greatest vampire story ever written. However after the first 4 chapters Bram Stoker's epistilary style bogs down, becomes tiring and very out of date. Thirty years ago I discovered LeFanu's novelette, "Carmilla" and found the best vampire story that can be read.
Carmilla was written over 130 years ago but still bears the marks of a stylish and well crafted story. LeFanu, an Irish writer, created a cursed family whose vamire descendant preys on two modern (for the 19th century) families. The story is rich in atmosphere and is filled with the vampire trappings that Bram Stoker later wove into Dracula. But the best feature of Carmilla is similar to the best feature of Dracula---they both create really evil vampire figures. But there is a complexity to Carmilla that has been argued by readers for 130 years. Is there a lesbian touch to Carmilla or is it a straight (no pun) forward vampire story? LeFanu teases the reader with a story that must have thrilled the Victorian world that first read Carmilla.
I must say that if I were going out to buy Carmilla I would turn to the Dover publication of, "The Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu." The Dover edition has several other ghost stories by LeFanu and Carmilla has some of the original illustrations that appeared in British periodicals.
If your taste is for vampire stories Carmilla, like the first 4 chapters of Dracula, is a great horror reading. Both show us powerful vampire villians. Both build to wonderful horror climaxes. Both show us that you have to be Irish to create a great vampire story. Halloween is always coming.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Vampire Romp
Review: I first became acquainted with Carmilla from the Hammer Studios Karstein Trilogy of The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins of Evil. The Vampire Lovers is the only one that draws from this book. The book starts getting into the movie from about the fifth chapter. I recognised dialog and descriptions in the plots of both. It's quite a liberal adaption, but the essence of the story remains intact. For example, the dialog isn't verbatim. The single line from The Vampire Lovers of "You must die, everybody must die" is about a paragraph's length of dialog in the book. It's a fantastic tale. Most of the lesbian is implied, and I caught gratuitous nudity added to the movie, which does add to the movie's appeal. I love the short length of about 150 pages. It never drags, and the chapters are no more than 10 pages each, making for easy reading. I put Carmilla above Bram Stoker's Dracula. Carmilla is a must-have for people with more than a passing interest of the vampire myth. I highly recommend this book. It's excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Forget Dracula
Review: I had to read this story for a class I took a year ago on vampires in mythology, film, and literature and found it was too hard for me to put it down. After re-reading it, I truly began to appreciate it's significance. The story was highly addictive for starters and I loved the whole lesbian sub-plot line story to it. This would go great with a feminist studies class. I would like to read the stories that pick up where this one left off. Forget Stoker's "Dracula," this is vampire story to read.

Rating:
Summary: Forget Dracula
Review: I had to read this story for a class I took a year ago on vampires in mythology, film, and literature and found it was too hard for me to put it down. After re-reading it, I truly began to appreciate it's significance. The story was highly addictive for starters and I loved the whole lesbian sub-plot line story to it. This would go great with a feminist studies class. I would like to read the stories that pick up where this one left off. Forget Stoker's "Dracula," this is vampire story to read.

Rating:
Summary: "You SHALL Be Mine!"
Review: The archetype of the vampire is universal throughout all cultures. These fascinating and alluring creatures who hover on the edge of reality have been the inspiration for a whole "gothic" subculture, thousands of films, and innumerable stories. While everyone is familiar with Bram Stoker's 1897 classic DRACULA, fewer people are familiar with J. Sheridan LeFanu's CARMILLA (1872) which directly inspired it.

If ever you question this "inspiration" read Stoker's short story DRACULA'S GUEST, originally a chapter of the larger book which had been edited from the original DRACULA manuscript for reasons of length. Carmilla makes a brief, absolutely recognizable pseudonymous appearance.

LeFanu's novella is short (about 100 pages) but tensely and tautly written. The story of a lonely country squiress, Laura, who is visited by the mysterious stranger Carmilla, the story lays the foundation for all vampire tales to come. LeFanu's story also contains a powerful if understated erotic subplot of lesbian sexuality, an element which runs through all subsequent vampire literature (most notably in the Hammer Films' adaptations of CARMILLA). In this regard, the vampire was a perfect vehicle for published erotica in the staid Victorian era, an early example of the wedding of sex and violence in popular culture.

More well-written than DRACULA and at least equally intriguing, CARMILLA deserves serious attention from any devotee of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: Short, but sweet
Review: This is a great vampire novel with some heavy lesbian undertones. It was written in the 1840's, so it was super racy stuff back then. I liked the novel a lot, but was very disappointed to see how short it was. It really doesn't amount to much more than a short story and could be read in one long or a couple of shorter reading sessions. If it were less expensive, it would have been alright, but... it's way overpriced.