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The bloated and gouty old man, in his horror, considered the question of resistance. But his athletic days were long over. This moor was a desert. There was no help to be had. He was in the hands of strange servants, even if his recognition turned out to be delusion, and they were under the command of his captors. There was nothing for it but submission, for the present. ... Read more

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I say I know this; I could prove it to your own conviction." He paused for a minute, and then added, "And as to accosting it, I dare not, I could not; when I see it I am powerless; I stand in the gaze of death, in the triumphant presence of infernal power and malignity. My strength, and faculties, and memory, all forsake me. O God, I fear, sir, you know not what you speak of. Mercy, mercy; heaven have pity on me!" ... Read more

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I did not know well what to make of this woman, whom I feared with a vein of superstitious dread. I hated being alone with her after dusk in the school-room. She would sometimes sit for half an hour at a time, with her wide mouth drawn down at the corners, and a scowl, looking into the fire. If she saw me looking at her she would change all this on the instant, affect a sort of languor, and lean her head upon her hand, and ultimately have recourse to her Bible. But I fancied she did not read, but pursued her own dark ruminations, for I observed that the open book might often lie for half an hour or more under her eyes and yet the leaf never turned. ... Read more

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Had he narrowly scrutinised the countenance of the fair Frenchwoman, as she glanced at the direction of that which he had just placed in her hand, he might have seen certain transient, but very unmistakable evidences of excitement and agitation. She quickly concealed the letter, however, and with a sigh, the momentary flush which it had called to her cheek subsided, and she was tranquil as usual. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1866Original Publisher: CarletonSubjects: Fiction / ClassicsFiction / HorrorFiction / LiteraryFiction / ReligiousHouse ... Read more

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Carmilla is the book that set the text for Dracula, that threw the light on our morbid fascination with the vampire legend. This is Carmilla, J. Sheridan LeFanu's classic novel of blood, terror -- and a love that dare not speak its name. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood
The vampire has always been used to convey sexuality -- and one of the earliest ones, the title character of "Carmilla," is no exception. Years before Bram Stoker ever dreamed of Dracula. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wove together a luscious, haunting gothic mystery that centers around a lovely, immortal young woman with a taste for blood.

When a mysterious carriage crashes at their schloss, Laura's father offers to take care of a young lady named Carmilla, who has been stunned by the collision. Laura herself is struck by how similar the girl looks to a strange figure that visited her as a child -- and Carmilla claims that they've had some sort of mutual vision of one another.

Even more striking, Carmilla immediately becomes VERY attached to Laura ("You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever"), and Laura is strangely entranced by Carmilla's speech.

As the days go by, Laura is increasingly bespelled by Carmilla, despite the young woman's strange behavior (and her weird resemblance to an ancient painting in the schloss, of a woman named Mircalla -- get it?), and is becoming increasingly ill and nervous. But when they visit an old friend, he reveals the shocking truth about Carmilla's true nature... and what she will do to Laura.

"Carmilla" is a true gothic novel in the best sense of the word -- a lushly-written little novella filled with ruined palaces, abandoned villages, moonlight and blood. And Le Fanu injects a not-so-subtle lesbian subtext into the story, since Carmilla seems to be as infatuated with Laura as she is hungry for her blood. Lots of kisses, adoring speeches, and Carmilla constantly creeping into Laura's bedroom.

And Le Fanu's writing is utterly exquisite. He swathes this eerie little story in a ghostly wrap of lush writing ("Over the sward and low grounds a thin film of mist was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a transparent veil") and some deeply creepy moments, such as Laura waking to see Carmilla covered in blood.

Le Fanu also sketches out his characters quickly and effectively, despite the novella's brevity. Laura is a sweet ordinary girl who seems both weirded out and entranced by Carmilla, and Carmilla herself is a larger-than-life character -- sensual, obsessive, vibrantly erotic and extremely creepy, except when she goes off on crazy rants about how much she hates hymns and funerals.

Stoker brought the vampire into the limelight, but "Carmilla" seductively introduced the vampire's eerie allure long before that. Luscious and eerie.

short & to the point
this is a great story for young kids who love creepy horror stories. the language might be a little hard to understand at times but still... 2 thumbs up!!

A Horror Classic
This classic short novel of a female vampire, set in the mid 1700's or early 1800's, is the basis for many horror films, most notably " The Vampire Lovers. A true classic and required reading for anyone into horror. How nice it is to have in a hardback edition. However, the cover of the book is a blank black and not the color cover advertised. At least the one I got was blank. This is a minor criticism though.

A good read.
This was one of the first vampire stories, so it's not exactly CSI. You know what's going on pretty quick, but it's still well done. I'd read it again.

BEFORE DRACULA THERE WAS CARMILLA
J. Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla" stands as one of the richest, most literate and most enduring stories in the history of the vampire sub-genre.Many rate it higher than Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and while that estimation is at least debatable, there is no debate that "Carmilla" has exerted a mighty influence, consciously or not, on most vampire fiction to follow in its wake, "Dracula" not excepted.Indeed, Stoker's original early chapter in his masterpiece, later published independently as "Dracula's Guest," is particularly indebted to LeFanu's earlier work.As to which is better, let each reader decide for himself--and so enjoy them both!

The story is deceptively simple.A young girl, shaken up in a carriage accident, is left by her traveling mother in the care of the narrator's father.Laura, the young woman in whose voice we are told the tale, becomes fast friends with her new acquaintance, a friendship that is put to a powerful test when a strange malady begins infesting the idyllic Styrian countryside with nightmares, fever, and death.

LeFanu's style is unhurried, intelligent, and subtle, and the result is an eminently readable tale of mystery and the macabre that holds up remarkably well to repeated perusals.Though not as famous as "Dracula," and certainly written on a much smaller scale than Stoker's epic vampire opus, "Carmilla" is the more sustained and concentrated of the two.Many have traditionally argued that the novella, or short novel, is the ideal vehicle for a horror story, allowing for plenty of characterization and plot development without pushing the story itself beyond its dramtic limits.This reviewer tends to agree, and asserts that whereas "Dracula," masterwork that it is, often flags and succumbs to the doldrums, "Carmilla" never wavers and holds interest to the bittersweet end.

Originally published in 1871, "Carmilla" was quite sensational in its day, but I know many will not judge it to have aged well. A far cry from many modern vampire tales, "Carmilla" is probably not for everyone, or even every vampire fan.The deliberate pace, old-world feel, delicate characterization, subtlety, and relative brevity of the story may be turn-offs to those who expect page after page of gory action and explicit sex from their horror.Be that as it may, discerning readers will find few indulgences better than LeFanu's "Carmilla," a gothic triumph which will endure as long as vampire tales are read. ... Read more

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A beautiful young heroine-A cruel and unfeeling mother-A one-eyed spy-A mesmerist-A lunatic asylum. These are the perfect components for a Victorian sensation novel, and in The Rose and the Key, J. Sheridan Le Fanu weaves them into a thrilling Gothic mystery.

The terror builds slowly, as young Maud Vernon and her old cousin Maximilla enjoy a sketching tour through Wales. Ominously, they find themselves shadowed by a sinister one-eyed man. And when they return to Roydon Hall, Maud's home, things become yet worse.Her mother, the imperious Lady Vernon, seems to loathe her, and there are other concerns as well-a mysterious will, an intimidating man clothed all in black, and the satanic mesmerist Doctor Antomarchi. Le Fanu slowly unfolds his plot, building the mystery and suspence until the shocking climax, where Maud escapes her cruel mother to visit the home of the great Lady Mardykes, only to find that she has escaped one hell, only to enter one far worse!

This edition is the first to follow the original text, as serialized in Charles Dickens's weekly All the Year Round in 1871. Featuring notes, the text of contemporary reviews, and contextual documents such as a letter from Dickens to Le Fanu, this is the first-ever scholarly edition of the novel.Highlighting this edition is a groundbreaking new introduction by Frances Chiu, which argues for consideration of The Rose and the Key as Le Fanu's statement on the troubled relations between England and Ireland and calls for a reevaluation of his ideology and politics. ... Read more

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NOTE: This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader and your ipod e-book reader.

A collection of some of the most horrifying stories written in the early part of the century.

In this volume:

The Judge's House by Bram Stoker

An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Madam Crowl's Ghost by J.S. Le Fanu

The Torture of Hopeby Villiers de l'Isle-Adam

Thurnley Abbey by Perceval Landon

The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson

The Lady's Maid's Bell by Edith Wharton

How Love Came To Professor Guildea. by Robert Hichens

"The Iron Shroud" by William Mudford

A must-read for classic and gothic horror fans! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good ghost stories
This book has 10 ghost stories from the Victorian era, most of them by popular authors of the time. Two of the stories didn't do much for me, but I liked the rest a lot. ... Read more

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Relive the Golden Era of radio with Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu. This DVD is filled with classic radio episodes that are sure to bring back fond memories. Each episode / file is in MP3 format. Simply place the DVD in any compatible DVD drive and play the files with your favorite MP3 media player. You can also copy the files to your favorite portable MP3 player and listen to these classics on the go. Enjoy! This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. 100% satisfaction guarantee! ... Read more

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Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era. Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin. He soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine. He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder. Le Fanu worked in many genres but remains best known for his mystery and horror fiction. He was a meticulous craftsman, with a penchant for frequently reworking plots and ideas from his earlier writing in subsequent pieces of writing. He specialised in tone and effect rather than "shock horror", often following a mystery format. Key to his style was the avoidance of overt supernatural effects. Among his famous works are: The House by the Church-Yard (1863), Uncle Silas (1864), Carmilla (1872), The Purcell Papers (1880), and The Evil Guest (1895). ... Read more

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NOTE: This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader or iPod e-book reader.

An early vampire tale (written fifty years before Dracula) that was originally published in Dublin University Magazine in 1843 as a novella.

The story has a Gothic Italian setting, featuring a criminal, Spalatro, confessing his sins to a monk. His story is quite unsettling and speaks of demons walking among us...

This is awonderful, well-written and vigorous ghost story. A must-read for classic and gothic horror fans!
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wild
I don't know if i could call it a tale about vampires. if there was a vampire in it she didn't play enough of part to be worth mentioning. it falls more under the category of devils and nightmares.
the story is about spalatro a notorious highwayman. he is in jail awaiting the day of his execution and decided to tell a monk the story of how he fell into his profession. his story is cut into two narratives. the first one is more of a "i did this and i did that"-with a fight that made me cringe. well done Le Fanu.- the second part is a wild, hellish, nightmare. it slips seamlessly from reality to foggy bizarre dreamlike areas. you cant tell if Spalatro really is being plagued by demons, if he's had too much of the party spirit-you'll notice that he only has trouble in the evenings and at night-, or if he's going crazy.


Kudos to the author for such understandable dreamlike places. though the reader can abruptly be moved from location to location it is always very clear what is going on. you never get any of those "Wait, what just happened? let me re-read this page" moments. the story is well worth reading, even if the second half is by far the better of the two. ... Read more

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When Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's first novel, The Cock and Anchor, first appeared in 1845, critics were quick to hail it as a work worthy of Sir Walter Scott and predicted that its anonymous author might be the national novelist Ireland had been waiting for.

Set against the historical backdrop of turbulent mid-eighteenth century Dublin, The Cock and Anchor is the story of heroic young O'Connor, who wants nothing more than to marry the beautiful Miss Mary Ashwoode.But her father, the wicked Sir Richard, who just may have struck a bargain with the devil, is firmly opposed and has resolved to marry her to Lord Aspenly. Meanwhile, unknown to the lovers, another obstacle to their union waits.Mary's brother, Sir Henry Ashwoode, has gotten mixed up with the evil Nicholas Blarden, who demands Mary for himself. And when Mary finds herself imprisoned by these villains in the great old house at Morley Court, she must find a way to escape before falling victim to their horrible schemes!

Often characterized as a historical novel, The Cock and Anchor nevertheless contains most of the elements of Le Fanu's later Gothic thrillers, such as his famous Uncle Silas (1864).This new edition, which includes the unabridged text of the three volume first edition published in Dublin in 1845, also features a scholarly introduction and annotations by James F. Wurtz, as well as an appendix containing contemporary reviews of the novel and other writings by Le Fanu. ... Read more