Carmilla

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

In a secluded castle in nineteenth-century Styria, young Laura leads a quiet and sheltered life-until a mysterious carriage accident brings the beautiful Carmilla into her home.

From the moment they meet, the two women are drawn to one another with an intimacy that is both irresistible and unsettling.
But as Carmilla’s presence grows more intense, Laura begins to suffer from strange dreams, mysterious weakness, and the terrifying sense that something is visiting her in the night.

First published in 1871-72, Carmilla is one of the foundational works of vampire literature and a major influence on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Long before Dracula entered his Transylvanian castle, Sheridan Le Fanu had already shaped many of the themes and conventions that would define the modern vampire tale.

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At the heart of the novella lies the ambiguous relationship between Laura and Carmilla.
Their mutual attraction is unmistakable, yet-as was characteristic of Victorian literature-its lesbian dimension is suggested through gestures, embraces, jealousy, longing, and coded language rather than stated explicitly.
A landmark of Gothic fiction, Carmilla is at once a vampire story, a tale of forbidden intimacy, and a haunting exploration of desire that cannot openly speak its name.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmilla. Originally serialized in The Dark Blue, London, 1871-1872. First published in book form in In a Glass Darkly, Richard Bentley and Son, London, 1872. The text of this edition is based substantially on the original 1872 book edition. The original British spelling has been retained; obvious typographical errors have been corrected. New edition, Göttingen, 2026.

EAN: 9783753805016
The Gothic Vampire Classic That Inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Sprachen: Englisch. 22,0 cm / 16,0 cm / 0,5 cm ( B/H/T )
LIWI Literatur- und Wissenschaftsverlag
August 2026 – 68 Seiten

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Carmilla – Overview: Key Facts at a Glance

Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: Gothic novella, horror fiction, vampire literature
Publication: 1871–1872 as a serial in The Dark Blue; collected in In a Glass Darkly in 1872
Literary period: Victorian literature; 19th-century Gothic fiction
Setting: Styria in the Austrian Empire, in the 19th century, primarily at Laura’s secluded family castle and the nearby ruins of Karnstein
Major characters: Laura, Carmilla (Mircalla, Countess Karnstein), Laura’s father, General Spielsdorf, Bertha Rheinfeldt and Baron Vordenburg
Central themes: Vampirism and the supernatural, desire and repression, attraction and repulsion, female intimacy, innocence and corruption, identity, death and the conflict between reason and superstition
Plot in one sentence: The isolated young Laura forms an intense and unsettling bond with the mysterious Carmilla, only to discover that her companion is an ancient vampire who has been preying on young women in the region.

Famous Quotes

“You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.”

Chapter IV, p. 23 of the LIWI edition

“I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling.”

Chapter IV, p. 23

“In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die—die, sweetly die—into mine.”

Chapter IV, p. 23

“I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love.”

Chapter IV, p. 23

“But to die as lovers may—to die together, so that they may live together.”

Chapter IV, p. 28

“I have been in love with no one, and never shall, unless it should be with you.”

Chapter V, p. 31

“You will think me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the more ardent the more selfish.”

Chapter VI, p. 33

“You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me and still come with me, and hating me through death and after.”

Chapter VI, p. 33

“There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature.”

Chapter VI, p. 33

“But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths.”

Chapter VI, p. 34

“The amphibious existence of the vampire is sustained by daily renewed slumber in the grave. Its horrible lust for living blood supplies the vigour of its waking existence.”

Chapter XVI, p. 65