The Vampire Lovers: J.S. Le Fanu’s Carmilla

Laura recalls a dream or vision in which a mysterious girl visited her bedroom.  Soon, what may be the very girl comes to live with her after a carriage accident.  Carmilla and Laura grow closer and closer, but all is not well.  Laura is troubled by strange dreams, and young girls in the area are dying from a mysterious malady.  Will Laura meet the same fate?

Laura and Carmilla

 

Le Fanu’s Gothic novella was first published in serial form in 1871-1872, twenty-six years before Dracula, and it was undoubtedly one of Bram Stoker’s main influences.  Instead of the lurid, violent attacks of previous vampires like Varney, Le Fanu brought a more human fiend and subtle sensuality to the vampire myth.  Carmilla is not just a one-dimensional thing that goes bump in the night, but a fully fleshed character who makes you wonder if Laura’s attraction to her has anything to do with the supernatural at all.  While Carmilla isn’t just a love story, it certainly is a love story:       

 

"'You are afraid to die?'"

"'Yes, everyone is.'"

"'But to die as lovers may--to die together, so that they may live together.'”

 

“'How romantic you are, Carmilla," I said. "Whenever you tell me your story, it will be made up chiefly of some one great romance.'

She kissed me silently."

 

"'I am sure, Carmilla, you have been in love; that there is, at this moment, an affair of the heart going on.'"

"'I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you.'"

 

"Shy and strange was the look with which she quickly hid her face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous sighs, that seemed almost to sob, and pressed in mine a hand that trembled.

Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. 'Darling, darling,' she murmured, 'I live in you; and you would die for me, I love you so.'"

 

Although there aren’t many similarities besides the first person perspective of a young female narrator, Carmilla sometimes runs together with Aickman’s “Pages from a Young Girl’s Journal” in my mind.  Aickman’s story is really just about the girl, not the vampire, though.  Both stories are ambiguous and have great closing lines.