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| Trade paperback, 347 pages Published 2008 (contents: 1851-72) Acquired October 2012 Read July 2013 |
by Sheridan Le Fanu
Horror fiction isn't very much my thing, and a lot of early horror fiction especially leaves me cold-- I feel like it's pretty obvious why Dracula took root in the popular consciousness to an extent that "Carmilla" did not. So there are some creepy moments in the five stories collected here, but overall I wasn't too moved. Except in the case of, surprisingly, "The Room in the Dragon Volant," which doesn't have any fantastic elements in it, but is about a young Englishman trying to make his fortune gambling in France who falls in love with the abused wife of a cruel count. This was pretty gripping and creepy in turns, and the characters were very fun.
I actually liked Carmilla, because it was the very first vampire novel to give its villain(ess) the sort of dark seductive charisma that's now become standard in the genre. Without Carmilla aka Miracalla aka plenty of other names, LeStat would have never Statted and the vampires of Twilight had nary a sparkle between them! ;-)
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