Carmilla

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. Pushkin Press.

Teenager Laura lives with her father when a woman shows up with her daughter and asks the father to look after the daughter as she has urgent business that requires heavy travel. Apparently the daughter is not well enough to travel and so Laura’s father agrees to look after her. Not long after, Laura suffers a mysterious illness.

This is not much more than a novella and it’s not bad but it’s definitely not a page-turner. My main interest is its historical value within the literature world as it’s not a book I have been aware of before now. There’s a steady narrative that describes the happenings to Laura, along with what happens to the ward of a family friend.

It seems Laura had dreams of Carmilla when she was much younger and then this “person” appears in her life. But that aspect of the story is left without any explanation of how that might have happened as it seems unique to this situation. There are intimations of a sort of love relationship between the two girls but aside from a great fondness for each other, there is no elaboration.

There is some minor tension that builds as the story goes but it’s not particularly frightening. I imagine if this was an inspiration for Dracula that Stoker might have read this and felt there were ways to make a better story. But I will admit I have yet to read Dracula so i cannot judge if this might have happened or not.

Overall this mostly an interesting read and I give it 6/10 . Thank you to Edelweis for providing an advance reader copy. I have provided this review voluntarily.