Isolated in a remote mansion in a central European forest, Laura longs for companionship — until a carriage accident brings another young woman into her life: the secretive and sometimes erratic Carmilla. As Carmilla’s 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 Fanu’s compelling tale of a young woman’s seduction by a female vampire was a source of influence for Bram Stoker’s 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.

Review

[Machado's] notes and introduction transform the novel from Victorian Gothic into postmodern Gothic, which makes this edition of Carmilla something the original text never was.

-— “Katharine Coldiron for Vol. 1 Brooklyn”

Machado's work as editor is vitally important to this new edition … Machado reminds us of the problematic aspects of this seminal work, but she also invites readers, whether they are fans of vampire tales or not, to dive in and experience a book that birthed a trope.

-— “Booklist”

Simultaneously a delicious vampire tale and a meaningful exercise in remembering silenced voices and questioning the authority of tradition.

-— “Kirkus Reviews” --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Carmen Maria Machado's debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, LA Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the World Fantasy Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize. In 2018, the New York Times listed Her Body and Other Parties as a member of “The New Vanguard,” one of “15 remarkable books by women that are shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century.” --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Joseph Sheridan LeFanu