Carmilla
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-02-01

Carmilla, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6921 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1698_in_fiction
#1872_novels
#1872_fantasy_novels
#1870s_LGBT_novels
#19th-century_Irish_novels
#Female_characters_in_literature
#Fictional_counts_and_countesses
#Fictional_vampires
#Irish_Gothic_novels
#Irish_LGBT_novels
Carmilla

Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897) by 26 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 (Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla). The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire, expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist, and is depicted as a trait of antagonism inline with the contemporary views of homosexuality. The story is often anthologized and has been adapted many times in film and other media.

"Carmilla", serialized in the literary magazine "The Dark Blue" in late 1871 and early 1872, was reprinted in Le Fanu's short story collection "In a Glass Darkly" (1872). Comparing the work of two illustrators to the story, David Henry Friston, with that of Michael Fitzgerald, whose work appears in the magazine article, but not in modern printings of the book, reveals inconsistencies in the characters' depictions. Consequently, confusion has arisen relating the pictures to the plot. Isabella Mazzanti illustrated the book's 2014 anniversary edition, published by Editions Soleil and translated by Gaid Girard.

Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature.

Laura, the teenage protagonist, narrates, beginning with her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle amid an extensive forest in Styria, where she lives with her father, a wealthy English widower...