Carmilla

The Vampire Lovers

By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu

Narrated by: Tracey Childes

Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Laura and her father live a quiet life in their remote castle in the dense forests of Styria. It is a solitary existence for young Laura, who has no companionship except for her governess and the occasional visits of neighbouring gentry. Into this lonely life comes the mysterious house guest, Carmilla.

Slowly Laura falls under Carmilla's spell. While she is both attracted and repulsed by Carmilla, she seems unable to find the energy to resist her.

A spate of sudden wasting deaths afflict the peasants in the countryside around the castle and Laura herself falls ill. Will they manage to work out the cause of her illness in time or will she just be the latest victim of the vampire Carmilla?

ABOUT THE READER: Tracey has just finished a sell-out run playing Martha to Matthew Kelly's George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at London's Trafalgar Studios. Tracey is best known for playing Lynne Howard in the popular 80s drama Howards' Way, and Linda Cosgrove in the long running Born and Bred.

Public Domain (P)2009 Fantom Films

Fantastic Classical Horror Story

A really short story but it is gripping the entire time. The world is set up perfectly and the reader does such a fantastic job with setting the atmosphere and mood. She does great voice acting for each of the characters and it is awesome to hear readers do that.

Broody gay Carmilla

I am a fan of the Carmilla the web series and have become extremely curious about the original rendition of this plot. Since I do not have the time to sit down and read the novella, I opted to listen to an audiobook instead. Great decision so far. When I started it, I actually did not stop until it was finished. I enjoyed listening to the voice. It was soothing, entertained me, made me think, and most importantly, it educated me about the original storyline. Sad ending though.... But! Wonderfully done.

!!!

Great story, amazing voice acting, and SUPER GAY. This version of _Carmilla_ is a fantastic audiobook!

pretty damn good

pretty damn good. the narrator was amazing . intend to relisten. definitely recommend especially if a victorian gothic fan

She who visits your dreams

A lesser known Gothic vampire novel that precedes the well-known Dracula. When we are first shown that love and affection can extend beyond your life.

Pre-Dracula Vampirism

Before Twilight, before Dracula, there was Carmilla.

Laura, a lonely young woman lives with her father in a lonely castle in the lonely Austrian countryside. Along comes a mysterious young woman, a long-term house guest: Carmilla. Laura finds Carmilla strangely attractive yet repellent at the same time. Who is she? What connection does she have to Laura's strange dreams, the attacks on children in the countryside, the sudden death of Laura's friend?

Carmilla was written in 1872 (25 years before Dracula) and is not at all explicit, but this reader definitely gets the impression that Carmilla's seductive pull on Laura has romantic, if not erotic, overtones. So, as much as one could write a "lesbian vampire" story in 1872, J. Sheridan LeFanu did just that.

I think that Carmilla is a more direct ancestor of the "Twilight" saga than, say, "Dracula." We see Laura being seduced by Carmilla's mysterious charm and yet disturbed by the fact. By contrast, Bram Stoker's Dracula focuses on the violent and evil aspects to the vampire's nature.

Tracey Childes' reading was quite good. She told the story well and acted out the part of Laura as the narrator convincingly. The story is told from the first person as a journal, and it is a fitting choice for an audiobook.

If you've read Dracula, Carmilla is an interesting counterpoint.

Haunting story, well-performed!

An essential vampire tale. I can see the mood and voice struck here by LeFanu to have influenced many future writers and directors in the vampiric story-telling vein! "Carmilla" really gets under your skin! Very accomplished and engaging reading, too.

A fantastic vampire tale from 1871 Austria!

"You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me." Carmilla from the book Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

I stumbled upon this little gem quite by accident as I tirelessly searched for a new book to read late at night when I should have been in bed. Through all the years I have always thought Bram Stokers Dracula was the first vampire novel written. Well it wasn't. Before Bram Stokers Dracula, which was written in 1896, there was Carmilla written by J. Sheridan Le Fanu in 1871. And I should also mention, while we are on the subject, that before Carmilla there was also another little short story written in 1819 called The Vampyre by John William Polidori, which is next on my tbr list. So far these are kind of the three older works I can find on vampire's in fiction.

So back to Carmilla, the vampire. The story of Carmilla takes us to a castle in the isolated countryside of Austria in 1871. There, living with her father and a few other people, we find a young woman by the name of Laura. As the people of the castle are outside talking they hear a loud commotion coming down the path and see a dark carriage with coachmen and dark riders hurrying down the path. After an accident occurs a young woman by the name Carmilla is left behind by her mother for a few months at the castle while the mother journeys on. The mother states her daughter is suffering from an illness that can cause seizures and moments of languid behavior and also says her daughter cannot take the rushed journey much more. After Carmilla's arrival a strange illness starts to spread across the countryside, people are plagued with dark and disturbing dreams, and talk starts to spread of a monster or a spirit that haunts the area.

This beautiful story is filled with such beautifully written prose that weaves strong characters together with the old countryside of Austria, so much so that you feel you are right in the story. I have read Bram Stokers Dracula before and it just didn't do anything for me. Now Carmilla I enjoyed very much. I did give it three stars, as that is an average rating for me, because although I enjoyed the book it didn't really wow me. It's difficult with vampire stories as when you have read one you read them all.

What really had me interested though was that J. Sheridan Le Fanu, in the year 1871, wrote a vampire novel where the female vampire was actually in love with the female protagonist. Although it wasn't erotic at all and was tastefully written, the fact that Le Fanu wrote these two female lovers into his vampire novel in this time period had to be hugely scandalous. And Le Fanu wrote a beautiful story that gets right to what the reader wants, and in a shorter time, whereas Bram Stokers Dracula was such a longer journey in the vampire world. I also need to take a brief moment to mention the narrator Tracey Childes, as I listened to this story as an audiobook, whose voice weaves such a beautiful tone to this story. Her accents and speed in the reading was superb and kept you enthralled the whole way. This is definitely a book I suggest for people who love a good vampire tale!