Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) by 25 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871–72), the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire, expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist. The story is often anthologised, and has been adapted many times in film and other media.
Illustration from The Dark Blue by D. H. Friston, 1872
Funeral, illustration by Michael Fitzgerald for Carmilla in The Dark Blue (January 1872)
Riegersburg Castle, Styria, suggested as a possible inspiration for Laura's Schloss.
Dom Calmet
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are the locked-room mystery Uncle Silas, the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.
The inspiration for The House by the Churchyard: the childhood home of Sheridan Le Fanu in Chapelizod in Dublin
The house on Merrion Square where Le Fanu lived
Le Fanu c. 1870
The seductive vampire Carmilla attacks the sleeping Bertha Rheinfeldt.
