Carmilla - Sheridan Le Fanu

Written about 25 years ahead of the well known classic vampire novel Dracula, this piece of work is considered an inspiration to Bram Stoker's masterpiece. However classical as it is, searching for this book in bookstores has been most frustrating to me. After enquiring from several large English bookstores with no avail, alas there were no other ways for me than resorting to the good old Amazon.com. If only I was a person who minds not of borrowing good texts, I would have acquired the title from public libraries. Nevertheless, it is most definately a worth reading if you are into Renaissance literature.

This book tells a tale from the stand point of a young lady who resided in an old secluded castle in Austria. Living only with her father, her aunt and a friend of her father, she longed for a companion of her age. With the arrival of a noble maiden, she began to experience nights of horrible encounters and slowly revealed the ordeal that had befell upon the nearby inhabitants.

The writings of this book is exquisite, typical for a Renaissance artpiece. If I must compare, this book is far more apprehendable and delicate than Bram Stoker's Dracula. If you are into the modern Twilight style romantized vampires, this book might disappoint you. Carmilla was not blonde, she did not wear lingerie, she was not even goth, she is simply, a young noble lady who could not grasp hold of the lust to prey upon other young maidens. In modern vampire stories you could see them flying dashing at speed faster than vehicles, with the strength that could easily lift up a car or breach a wall, but in here Carmilla could accomplish none of these. She was weak and shrieked upon immediate danger, as instinct instructed. She could however shift into form of an animal and be swift in dodging sword blows. Being capable of such feat in that period of time, was already too hard to be killed. To put Carmilla or Dracula in modern time, with modern weaponry they would simply be put down like stray dogs, let alone wrecking horror to peaceful neighbourhoods.

That being said, nothing fancy here other than classical mysteries. It is a must read for those who enjoyed reading all about vampires, for it spawned ideas that shaped what vampires are to these days. Thanks to Le Fanu first portrait of rather attractive female vampire, we now enjoy quite dearly as in appeared in almost every books, voluptous goth chicks prowling the night alleys like every men's wet dream.