3 h 9 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 77 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 77 pagesAbout this book
What if the friend you long for brings something terrible into your home?
In a lonely castle in Styria, Laura longs for someone her own age. Then a carriage accident brings Carmilla into her sheltered life. Beautiful, affectionate and secretive, the stranger soon becomes her dearest friend. Their long walks and hours together offer Laura the closeness she craves, but small oddities begin to trouble the comfort of their friendship.
Laura suffers strange dreams. A dark shape moves around her bed, and she wakes with cold and weight on her chest. Beyond the castle, sickness spreads through the countryside. In Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu draws fear out slowly, bringing desire and dread close together until affection itself becomes a source of uncertainty.
What you’ll discover
- A lonely castle Enter Laura’s secluded home, where the promise of companionship makes a stranger welcome.
- A troubling friendship Follow Laura and Carmilla as tenderness, secrecy and longing draw them closer together.
- Dreams that disturb Feel the unease of nights when familiar rooms become places of cold and fear.
- The roots of vampire fiction Discover an early vampire tale that precedes Dracula and contains habits of later vampire stories.
- Dread without haste Experience how small oddities and spreading sickness build a quiet, persistent sense of danger.
Who will love it
For readers who love Gothic atmosphere, vampire lore and close, troubling friendships, and anyone curious about the roots of Dracula.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lonely castle in the Styrian forest
- A carriage accident brings a guest
- A friendship that grows strange
- Nightmares, illness and a spreading sickness
- Desire, loneliness and fear of the unknown
- How Le Fanu tells it and what followed
Who’s who
- LauraA lonely young woman who tells the story. She lives in a Styrian castle and longs for a friend her own age.
- CarmillaA beautiful, graceful girl taken in after a carriage accident. She is secretive and affectionate, and she stays with Laura's family.
- Laura's fatherAn English widower who once served Austria. He is kind, practical and protective of his daughter, and he trusts reason over rumour.
- Madame PerrodonLaura's French governess, a cheerful and good-natured companion who helps run the household and keeps the girls company.
- General SpielsdorfAn old friend of Laura's father. He has suffered a sad loss in his family and carries a grim determination.
- Doctor HesseliusA learned investigator of unusual illnesses, in whose papers the account is kept as a case.
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- Audiobook
- 3 h 9 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Carmilla in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Carmilla
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu · 1872
In a lonely Styrian castle, Laura welcomes a mysterious friend as strange dreams and sickness threaten her quiet life.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A lonely castle in the Styrian forest
The story opens with Laura, who writes years after the events she describes. She lives with her father in a schloss, which is the German word for a castle or large country house, in Styria. Her father is an English widower who once served the Austrian empire, and his money lets him live in comfort. Laura's mother died when she was a baby, so she has grown up with few companions.
The household is small. A French governess, Madame Perrodon, and a Swiss lady, Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, look after Laura and keep her company. The castle stands in a wide, wooded landscape with a ruined village nearby. The nearest neighbours live many miles away, and visitors are rare and welcome.
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What is Carmilla about?
Carmilla is about Laura, a young woman living in a remote castle in Styria, who befriends a mysterious girl taken in by her father. As Laura sickens, strange events suggest a vampire is near.
Did Carmilla come before Dracula?
Yes. Carmilla appeared in a magazine in 1871 and 1872, about twenty-five years before Dracula in 1897. Bram Stoker knew it, and it shaped later vampire fiction, especially the figure of the female vampire.
Is Carmilla a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. He drew on central European vampire folklore and set the tale in Styria, but the characters and events are invented.
The author
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
1814–1873 · Irish Gothic novelist
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer born in Dublin in 1814. He lived in Ireland and died in Dublin in 1873. He wrote Gothic tales, mystery novels, and ghost stories. His novels include Uncle Silas, published in 1864, and The Wyvern Mystery, published in 1869.
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