Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: a review

As a lover of the Gothic, and of vampires, this is a book that has been on my radar for some time. I’ve also been aware that many LGBTQ+ people hold this book close to their hearts, and I can see why. I was given this book last year, and planned on reading it right away, but I read hardly any books compared to usual in 2020. So, that’s why I wanted it being read early on this year.

            Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu follows Laura, a young Austrian in a well-off family. Early in her life, she suffers with a horrendous nightmare about a strange figure in her room. When she wakes, she feels as though she’s been bitten just above her collar bone. A little after the discovery that her father’s friend lost his niece to a mysterious illness, a carriage crashes near their home, and they are left to care for a girl of about the same age as Laura; this girl is Carmilla. She’s charming, and beautiful, but there’s something strange about her. She’s unbelievably easy to be around, but she loses her energy very easily, and there’s a lot of mystery surrounding her family history.

            This was a lot easier to read than a lot of Victorian texts I’ve consumed. Partly just because it’s shorter, my copy coming in a little over a hundred pages, which means that you get far less of the endless description that makes its way into Victorian novels so frequently. Don’t get me wrong, Dracula will forever be one of my favourite novels, but my goodness does it go on and on at times. Carmilla is concise, but Le Fanu still gives the reader enough information to perfectly follow the plot, while having a great sense of setting and characters.

            In terms of the LGBTQ+ (mostly L) love for this book, I completely get it. Look, don’t go into this book expecting to find the pinnacle of gay pride. This isn’t a depiction of a fun-loving lesbian couple, but Laura is a pretty good reflection of what it’s like when you aren’t aware of your sexuality and you’re having all of these feelings that you can’t quite understand yet.

            One of my favourite things about this book is how Carmilla has had different names throughout her life. However, they’re always anagrams of each other. So, there are three instances referenced in the book; the first is obviously Carmilla, but there is also Mircalla and Millarca. I don’t think it’s meant to be funny, but that didn’t stop me getting a giggle out of it. All I could think of was the game Castlevania, in which Dracula names his son Alucard (it’s just Dracula backwards). There is a short explanation about Carmilla’s naming conventions, but it absolutely feels like a bit of a rush job because Le Fanu realised that it’s all a bit ridiculous.

            Overall, I’m really glad I got around to reading this book. It encompasses many of my loves of the Gothic, and I’m sure I’ll make my way through it again at some point. If you have any sort of e-reader, you can probably find a free copy of this (or at least it’ll be less than a pound). I imagine there are also physical copies that aren’t too expensive either. If you love Goths, gays, and vampires, then you’ll want to get your hands on a copy of this book.

            Just a sidenote at the end here, my reading list is likely to be filled with a lot of class books. I’ll still do reviews, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be quite as passionate as with the books I’ve elected to read. I’ve still got a few books coming up that aren’t for uni; there are two reviews next week, one Tuesday, one Thursday, and after that it’ll just depend on how much I’m able to read at once. I’m hoping I haven’t got another beast like Infinite Jest in any of my upcoming modules.