robot_mel | Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

I haven’t actually finished the rest of the stories from In a Glass Darkly but didn’t think I’d get to them before the end of the year so thought I would just write up Carmilla. I did enjoy this story a great deal. I had heard it being referred to as the lesbian vampire story but was genuinely surprised to see how much was in there and how much Le Fanu was actually able to have gotten away with. The contrasts with Dracula were quite astounding. Carmilla seemed to be much closer to Vampiric Folklore, though perhaps even more romanticised. I really did enjoy the creepiness of the first half; I felt that as close as everything was then it was rather disappointing that the narrator was so far separated from the end of the story. Once Carmilla’s nature was revealed it would have been nice to have a direct confrontation between the two. Still I very much enjoyed the style and the plot and despite its shortness thing I prefer it to Dracula.