Carmilla

To this hour the image of Carmilla returns to my memory with ambiguous alternationssometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church. Sometimes, I start from a reverie, certain I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door. Isolated in a remote mansion in a central European forest, Laura longs for companionshipuntil a carriage accident brings another young woman into her life: the secretive and sometimes erratic Carmilla. As Carmillas actions become more puzzling and volatile, Laura develops bizarre symptoms, and as her health goes into decline, Laura and her father discover something monstrous. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanus compelling tale of a young womans seduction by a female vampire was a source of influence for Bram Stokers Dracula, which it predates by over a quarter century. Carmilla was originally serialized from 1871 to 1872 and went on to inspire adaptations in film, opera, and beyond, including the cult classic web series by the same name.