The Ninth (?) Book of 2026: Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

I’ve been researching vampire fiction in a desultory way, and what better place to go than the original vampire novel. I know many of us tend to think that Bram Stoker’s Dracula  was the first, but that’s about twenty years too late.

(The question mark in the title is because I read this at the end of February/beginning of March, then forgot I'd written a review. So the seventh and eighth books actually came after this one. Oh well.)

Carmilla is very much a Gothic tale: an old castle isolated in the woods, a lovely young heroine, a dread presence, etc. The vampire, a beautiful stranger who comes to visit and befriend the heroine, Laura — who also becomes her victim.

The edition I read was edited by Carmen Maria Machado and attempts to reclaim a queer reading of the tale. There’s no doubt Le Fanu’s story has lesbian overtones, making the story not only a seminal work of vampire literature, but of the lesbian vampire subgenre.

I found the tale interesting, though not as overtly vampiric as I expected. Laura seems to be very little affected by the nightly predations of Carmilla, while young women throughout the neighborhood sicken and die.

It was certainly worth the read.