To heighten the spooky mood this October, I have decided to read books with a gothic theme this month. My first choice was the novella, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. A great influence to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and considered to be the first vampire story. However, Le Fanu’s book dives more into possession and the dark side of unconditional love.
The story is told in a first person account from a woman named Laura who recounts her eerie experience with a strikingly beautiful Carmilla. Having grown up with no one around her age, our protagonist’s days are spent in boredom. That is until one night a carriage comes rampaging erratically and crashes. No one is injured and instead, an older woman asks to leave her daughter in the care of Laura’s father. The fact that the character’s were unconcerned about homing a young girl for three months that they had just met was quite shocking to me. I guess hospitality has changed immensely over the years. Thus, starts the sweet relationship between Laura and Carmilla.
There is no “they were close friends here” between their intimate connection as they prove to be infatuated with each other and share kisses – which after finishing the book, seem to be more like a mark of ownership from Carmilla. Their constant conversations about death and dying as lovers were romantic at first, but felt more like a command from Carmilla as I continued on. Laura had her dark moments too, hating Carmilla for being eccentric, but always wanting her by her side. Le Fanu excellently develops their relationship from friends to lovers to essentially platonic love with underlying obsession between the both of them. It is unfortunate though, that we never get to see Carmilla’s point of view so we don’t know whether she saw Laura as merely her food or if she did love her as a person. Was showering her with love a way to justify her murderous actions?
Throughout the book Laura has explained her trouble with sleeping and often having nightmares of a woman or monster. As it is revealed to be Carmilla’s doing, it makes her death ironic. Here she is manipulating her partner’s dreams, and previous victims, as a tactic to weaken her food, only for her to be killed in her sleep. She is executed in a rather gruesome way too, with a steak to the heart and decapitation. I found this to be slightly anticlimactic as the only conclusion we get is the lore of Carmilla’s grave. I won’t lie, I wanted at least a confession from either woman. Although some may argue that this was Laura’s way of coming to terms with her trauma. If so, then she clearly still holds some admiration towards Carmilla.
Furthermore, it was intriguing to read Laura’s recollection of her short lived horror romance, especially in one sitting. I shall rate it four out of five stars, mainly because of the seductive Carmilla.
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