Carmilla (Annotated)

It is the 1870s. Women are expected to be passive, obedient. Pretty, but not too pretty. Strong but not too strong. And sex is their duty, just another service they provide to men. Women are supposed to do what they’re told. They have no rights and little status in society. But then there’s Carmilla. She’s tall, she’s beautiful, she’s confident. She moves like a cat, seemingly without any effort at all. She stands out; she’s different. She’s not like the other women of her time. Carmilla truly is different: she is a vampire. She preys on the women of her time, drawing them in with the irresistible lure of forbidden delights. In this gothic horror novel that predates Bram Stoker’s Dracula by a quarter century, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu spins a tale of a young woman fated to cross paths with a dark presence destined to alter her life forever. Altered by Carmilla -- the original vampire. This version includes a special introduction discussing the novel’s role in illustrating the status of women at the time, as well as study questions.