Alright I have no idea what to say about this book. I mean I do, mostly because I wrote a 14 page essay about it once. I'm going to start with saying the book cover on this isn't the prettiest version, but my boss sent it to me after hearing that I had read it online so I'm going to use this copy.
When I wrote my analysis on this book, the theme was basically how sexuality is represented in this book. I mean, anyone that has read this book can probably tell why I had chosen such an angle for a vampire book, but if you haven't really read the book it's because the main character Carmilla is this super old vampire that only preys on young women, she does so by seducing them and draining their life slowly and the twist here is that these young girls also reciprocate the romantic feelings. She's known as one of the first "lesbian" vampires to exist, and I put that i quotations because back in the day when it was written during the 1800's, homosexuality was this scary abnormality so Le Fanu's book shouldn't really be considered the one with a lesbian vampire but instead give an insight on the monstorous view given to a homosexual character and the fear it brings.
Either way the point of this book review is not to get into my analysis discussion because it's guaranteed that I would rant for a million more pages than I already am. So the book!
Scary vampire Carmilla gets thrown out of a wagon in an accident infront of main character Lauras house. While Laura and her dad helped the pale death-looking woman, her mom says she has business and can't remain and rides off into the woods leaving Carmilla with Laura. Then the seduction and dying begins and so on so on.
The book is actually very entertaining, the language is a bit light compared to other 1800's works but it's just the best part of it. It's a very short story, my book is only 70 pages and honestly not a lot happens around the main plot for it to even be longer.
The main story however is pretty funny, I didn't expect Le Fanu to include such a humorous tone to the book, which he might actually not have done but the plot could also be so ridiculous that it brings that touch of humour right into the story. Basically it's very entertaining to read this story because you've got this one decade old vampire and young girls are mysteriously dropping dead wherever she is, but the main focus of all the elder men in the book is to stop the woman with an opinion, Carmilla is known for being quite "masculine" (hint: this is probably because of the homosexuality views) and she knows a lot about things that are outside her domain aka she knows politics and she's a woman that is very much a no-no. So their whole mission is to stop this monster that keeps seducing women and educating herself, but according to the book her biggest crime is that she takes walks ALONE at night. Very un-ladylike.
Anyway, all in all this book is extremely entertaining and it's a very easy read. I mostly suggest that if you're doing some sort of school work this could really be it. Had I read this before I did my final project in school I probably would have chosen it instead of my Shakespeare work.
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