Carmilla

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Carmilla is a Gothic novel by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the earliest works of the vampire vampires, preceding Bram Stoker Dracula (1897)) with 26 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871-72), this story was narrated by a young woman who was predestined by a female vampire named Carmilla, then passed down to Mircalla, Countess Karnstein (Carmilla was an anagram of Mircalla ). The story is often overrated and has been adapted many times in movies and other media.

Video Carmilla

Publications

Carmilla, which was serialized in the literary magazine The Dark Blue at the end of 1871 and early 1872, reprinted in the Le Fanu short story collection In the Dark Glass 1872). Comparing the works of two illustrators, David Henry Friston and Michael Fitzgerald, whose work appears in magazines but not in the modern print of the book, reveal inconsistencies in character depictions. As a result, confusion arises related images to the plot. Isabella Mazzanti illustrates the 2014 book anniversary edition, published by the Soleil Edition and translated by Gaid Girard.

Maps Carmilla

Plot summary

Le Fanu presents the story as part of Dr. Hesselius, who departed from medical orthodoxy placed him as the first occult detective in literature.

Laura, the teenage protagonist, recounts, beginning with her childhood in the "beautiful and solitary" castle in the middle of a vast forest in Styria, where she lives with her father, a wealthy British widower who retired from service to the Austrian Empire. When she was six, Laura had a vision of a beautiful visitor in her bedroom. He later claimed to have been stabbed in her breast, though no injuries were found.

Twelve years later, Laura and her father admired the sunset in front of the castle when her father told her about a letter from her friend, General Spielsdorf. The general should have brought his niece Bertha Rheinfeldt to visit the two, but the nephew died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. General ambiguously concluded that he would discuss the situation in detail when they meet later.

Laura, saddened by the loss of a potential friend, missed a friend. Train crash outside Laura's home unexpectedly brought Laura's age girl into family care. His name is Carmilla. The girls immediately recognized the others of the "dreams" they both had when they were young.

Carmilla looked hurt after the wreck, but her mysterious mother told Laura's father that his journey was urgent and could not be postponed. He arranges to leave his daughter with Laura and his father until he can return in three months. Before he left, he firmly noted that his daughter would not reveal any information about his family, past, or himself, and Carmilla was physically fit. Laura commented that this information did not seem to be said, and her father laughed at her.

Carmilla and Laura grow up to be close friends, but sometimes Carmilla's mood suddenly changes. She sometimes made romantic advances against Laura. Carmilla refused to tell him anything about him, despite being questioned by Laura. Her secrecy is not the only mysterious thing about Carmilla; he never joins the household in his prayer, he sleeps all day, and he seems to sleep outside at night.

Meanwhile, women and young girls in nearby towns begin to die of unknown disease. When the funeral procession of one of the victims passed by the two girls, Laura joined in the funeral. Carmilla burst into anger and scolded Laura, complaining that the song was hurting her ears.

When a delivery of the restored heirlooms arrived, Laura discovered the portrait of her ancestor, Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, dated 1698. The portrait resembled Carmilla exactly, to the mole around her neck. Carmilla says he may have come from the Karnstein family even though his family died centuries before.

As long as Carmilla lived, Laura had nightmares about a big animal like a cat entering her room and biting her chest. The beast then takes the form of a female figure and disappears through the door without opening it. In another nightmare, Laura heard a voice saying, "Your mother warns you to be careful of the murderer," and the sudden light reveals Carmilla standing at the foot of her bed, her nightgown drenched in blood. Laura's health declined, and her father asked the doctor to examine her. He found a small blue dot on his chest and talked privately with his father, just asking that Laura never be unattended.

His father then left with Laura, on the train, to the ruined Karnstein village, three miles away. They left a message behind asking Carmilla and one of the sitter to follow after Carmilla who slept late at night woke up. On the way to Karnstein, Laura and her father met General Spielsdorf. He told them his horrible story:

At a costume party, Spielsdorf and his nephew Bertha meet a young woman named Millarca and her mysterious mother. Bertha was immediately taken with Millarca. The mother convinces the General that she is an old friend and asks that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she attends a very important secret issue.

Bertha fell ill mysteriously, suffering the same symptoms as Laura. After consulting with a specially ordered imam doctor, the General realized that Bertha was visited by a vampire. He hid with his sword and waited until a big black creature crawled into his nephew's bed and into his neck. He jumped from his hiding place and attacked the beast, which took the form of Millarca. He escaped through a locked door, unharmed. Bertha died soon afterwards.

Upon arriving at Karnstein, the General asks a carpenter where he can find Mircalla Karnstein's grave. The carpenter said that the tomb was moved long before by the heroes who conquered the vampires that haunt the area.

While the General and Laura were alone in the ruined chapel, Carmilla appeared. General and Carmilla were both angry when they saw each other, and the General attacked him with an ax. Carmilla disables the General and disappears. The general explained that Carmilla was also Millarca, both anagrams for the original name of the Mircalla vampire, Countess Karnstein.

This party joins Baron Vordenburg, the heroic descendants who have rid of the vampire territory for a long time. Vordenburg, the vampire authority, has discovered that his ancestors were romantically involved with Countess Karnstein before he died and became one of the undead. Using the records of his ancestors, he placed the hidden grave of Mircalla. The Imperial Commission vilify the vampire body. Drowning in blood, apparently breathing faintly, his heart beating, his eyes open. Stakes are pushed through their hearts, and that gives an appropriate shout; then his head was hit. The body and head are burned to ashes, which are dumped into the river.

After that, Laura's father took her daughter on a year-round tour through Italy to regain her health and recover from the trauma, which she never completely did.

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Source

Like Dracula , critics have searched for the sources used in the writing of Carmilla . One of the sources used is from a dissertation on magic, vampire and spirit sightings written by Dom Augustin Calmet entitled TraitÃÆ' Â © sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou les revenants de Hongrie, de Moravie, & amp; c. (1751). This is evidenced by the report analyzed by Calmet, from a priest who knows the information about a city that was abused by vampiric entities 3 years earlier. After traveling to the city to investigate and gather information from various residents there, the priest learned that a vampire had tortured many inhabitants at night by coming from a nearby cemetery and would haunt many residents in their beds. An unfamiliar Hungarian traveler came to town during this period and helped the city by setting traps in the cemetery and beheading the vampires who lived there, healing the city of their torment. The story is retold by LeFanu and adapted into Carmel's thirteenth chapter

According to Matthew Gibson, Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould The Book of Werewolves (1863) and his account of Elizabeth BÃÆ'¡thory, Coleridge Christabel (Part 1, 1797 and Part 2, 1800 ), and Captain Basil Hall Schloss Hainfeld; or Winter in Lower Styria (London and Edinburgh, 1836) is another source for Le Fanu Carmilla . Hall accounts provide a lot of Styrian background and, in particular, models for Carmilla and Laura in the figure of Jane Anne Cranstoun, Countess Purgstall.

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Influence

Carmilla, the title character, is the original prototype for the female and lesbian vampire legions. Although Le Fanu describes his vampire's sexuality with the cautiousness that people expect for his time, it is evident that the lesbian's interest is the main dynamic between Carmilla and the story narrator:

Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful friend will hold my hand and hold it with sweet pressure, renewed again and again; blushing gently, staring at my face with eyes languid and burning, and breathing so fast that her dress went up and down with a tumultuous respiration. It is like the spirit of a lover; it embarrasses me; it is full of hatred but strong; and with foaming eyes he pulled me toward him, and his hot lips slid down my cheeks in a kiss; and he will whisper, almost sobbing, "You are mine, you will be mine, and you and I are one forever". ( Carmilla , Chapter 4).

When compared to other 19th century literary vampires, Carmilla is a similar product of a culture with strict sexual customs and real religious fears. While Carmilla chooses an exclusive female victim, she is only emotionally involved with several people. Carmilla has a nocturnal habit, but is not limited to darkness. He has a remarkable beauty, and is able to change his form and pass through a solid wall. Her alter ego animal is a horrible black cat, not a big dog like in Dracula. However, he slept in a coffin. Carmilla works as a Gothic horror story because its victims are portrayed as succumbing to evil and unholy temptations that have heavy metaphysical consequences for them.

Some critics, among them William Veeder, point out that Carmilla, especially in his strange use of narrative frames, was an important influence on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898).

Bram Stoker Dracula

Although Carmilla is a lesser-known and much shorter Gothic vampire story than the main occupation generally regarded as the genre, Dracula , the latter is strongly influenced by Le Fanu's novel. Stroker's short story published posthumously "Dracula's Guest" (1914), known as the first chapter deleted for Dracula, shows a clearer and more complete debt for Carmilla :

• In his narrative, an Englishman finds himself in Germany on his way from England to Dracula's castle; stumbled upon a tomb of a vampire woman whose writings read: Countess Dolingen from Gratz/in Styria/searched and found dead/1801.
• Both stories are told to the first person. Dracula expands the idea of ​​a first person account by creating a series of journal entries and logs from different people and creating a sensible background story for those who have been compiled.
• Both authors enjoy the air of mystery, though Stoker takes it further than Le Fanu by allowing characters to solve vampire puzzles along with readers.
• The description of the title characters in Carmilla and Lucy in Dracula is similar, and has become an archetype for similar victim-like appearances like waif and sedirers on vampire tales like reddish cheeks , slender, lethargic, and with big eyes, full lips, and a soft voice. In addition, both women walk in sleep.
• Dr. Dr. Stoker Dr. Van Helsing is a direct parallel with the vampire expert Le Fanu, Baron Vordenburg: both characters used to investigate and catalyze actions contrary to vampires, and symbolically represent knowledge of ignorance and stability of mind in the onslaught of chaos and death.

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In popular culture

Books

(alphabetically by the author's last name)

• In the Japanese light novel series High School DxD, written by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero, the vampires are portrayed as having a society divided between two main factions: The Tepes and Carmilla. The Carmilla faction supports the matriarchal community for the vampire world while Tepes prefers patriarchal rule.
• Carmilla: A Dark Fugue is a short book by David Brian. Although the story is primarily centered around the exploits of General Spielsdorf, the story is directly related to the events that took place in Carmilla: The Wolves of Styria.
• Carmilla's novel: The Wolves of Styria is a re-imagining of the original story. This is derivative derivative works, listed as written by J.S. Le Fanu and David Brian.
• Novel 2002 Rachel Klein The Moth Diaries shows some excerpts from Carmilla , as the novel characters in the Klein storyline, and both relate to the same subject and theme..
• Carmilla: The Return by Kyle Marffin is a continuation of Carmilla .
• Ro McNulty's novel, Destruction: The Resurrection of Karnstein's House, is a sequel to Le Fanu novella and lasted more than 100 years later. Carmilla continues to play with mortal beings, inserting herself into their lives and destroying her as she wishes. He places himself around a teacher and his family, feeding his baby girl.
• A vampire named Baron Karnstein appears in Kim Newman's novel Anno Dracula (1992). Carmilla himself is mentioned several times as an ex (until his death in the hands of vampire hunters) vampire friend of GeneviÃÆ'¨ve heroine. Some short stories set in the nature series Anno Dracula also include Carmilla.
• Author Anne Rice has quoted Carmilla as an inspiration for The Vampire Chronicles, a continuing series that began in 1976 with Interview with Vampires .
• Christopher Thomason identified Carmilla as the main influence for his 2015 novel For The Want Of Beauty.

Comics

(based on the alphabetical title series)

• In 1991, Aircel Comics published six copies of Carmya black and white miniseries by Steven Jones and John Ross. It was based on Le Fanu's story and billed as "The Erotic Horror Classic of Female Vampirism". The first edition was printed in February 1991. The first three problems adapt the original story, while the last three are sequels made in the 1930s.
• In the arc of the first story of Dynamite Entertainment's change of Vampirella, a vicious vampire, named Le Fanu, inhabits Seattle's basement nightclub named Carmilla.

Movies

(chronological)

• Danish director Carl Dreyer loosely adapted Carmilla for his movie Vampyr (1932) but removed all references to lesbian sexuality. The credits from the original film say that the film is based on In a Glass Darkly . This collection contains five fairy tales, one of which is Carmilla . Actually, this film attracted its main character, Allan Gray, from Le Fanu. Hesselius; and the scene in which Gray was buried alive was taken from "The Room in the Dragon Volant".
• French director Roger Vadim Et mourir de plaisir (literally And died of pleasure , but actually displayed in the UK and US as Blood and Roses >, 1960) is based on Carmilla and is considered one of the largest vampire genres. Vadim's film thoroughly explores the lesbian implications behind Carmilla's choice of victims, and offers cinematography by Claude Renoir. However, the lesbian erotic film was significantly cut for the US release. Mel Ferrer star in the movie.
• A more faithful adaptation starring Christopher Lee was produced in Italy in 1963 under the title La Cripta e l'incubo ( Crypt of the Vampire in English). Laura's character is played by Adriana Ambesi, who is afraid of being possessed by the dead ancestral spirits.
• The British Hammer Film Productions also produced a faithful adaptation of Carmilla titled The Vampire Lovers (1970) with Ingrid Pitt in the lead role, Madeline Smith as her victim/lover , and Peter Cushing's regular Hammer. This is the first installment of the Karnstein Trilogy.
• The Blood Spattered Bride (La Novia Ensangrentada ) is a Spanish 1972 horror film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the text. The film has achieved cult status due to a mixture of horror, vampires and seduction with a lesbian tone.
• Carmilla (1980) is a black-and-white adaptation made for television from Poland, starring singer Izabela Trojanowska in the title role and Monika Stefanowicz as Laura.
• Japanese anime 2000 Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust features Carmilla "the Bloody Countess" as its main antagonist. After being killed by Dracula for his vain and voracious thrush, the ghost of Carmilla tries to use virgin blood to bring his own resurrection. She is voiced by Julia Fletcher in English and Beverly Maeda in Japanese.
• In a live-to-video movie, The Batman vs. Dracula (2005), Carmilla Karnstein is called the Count Dracula bride, who had been burned by sunshine many years ago. Dracula hopes to wake him up at the expense of Vicki Vale's soul, but the ritual is stopped by Batman.
• The book is directly referenced several times in the 2011 movie, The Moth Diaries , the movie version of Rachel Klein's novel. There is a striking similarity between the characters in "Carmilla" and the people in the movie, and the book numbers into the movie plot.
• Carmilla is featured as the main antagonist in the Lesbian Vampire Killers movie (2009), a comedy starring Paul McGann and James Corden, with Silvia Colloca as Carmilla.
• The Unwanted (2014) by writer/director Brent Wood moves the story to contemporary South America.
• The Curse of Styria (2014), alternately titled Angels of Darkness is an adaptation of the novel set in the late 1980s with Julia Pietrucha as Carmilla and Eleanor Tomlinson as Lara.
• In 2017 The Carmilla Movie , based on the 2015 Carmilla web series, was released. Directed by Spencer Maybee and produced by Steph Ouaknine, the film follows the web series 5 years after the end.

Music

Opera

• The opera version of Carmilla room appeared in Carmilla: A Vampire Tale (1970), music by Ben Johnston, manuscript by Wilford Leach. Sitting on the couch, Laura and Carmilla tell a retrospective story in the song.

Rock music

(alphabetically by group/artist)

• Jon English released a song called Carmilla , inspired by the book, on his 1980 album Calm Before the Storm .
• The British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth, vocalist Dani Filth, often calls Sheridan Le Fanu the inspiration of the lyrics. For example, their EP, V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein (1994), includes a song titled "Queen of Winter, Throned", which contains the lyrics: Carmil's mask/A gaunt mephitic voyeur/On the black side of the glass ". In addition, the album Dusk... and Her Embrace (1996) is largely inspired by Carmilla and Le Fanu's writings in general. The band has also recorded an instrumental song titled "Carmilla's Masque", and in the song "A Gothic Romance", the lyrics "Portrait of the Dead Countess" may be a portrait reference found in the Countess Mircalla novel.
• 1993 Disciplinary Band Album Push & amp; Benefits include a ten-minute song called Carmilla, based on Le Fanu's character.
• The lyrics for "Blood and Roses", the LaHost song on the Fire in Harmony (1985) EMI compilation album, are loosely based on the movie version of Roger Vadim Carmilla .
• The title track of the album Symphonies of the Night (2013), by German/Norwegian Leaves' Eyes band, was inspired by Carmilla .
• Alessandro Nunziati, better known as Lord Vampyr and former vocalist of Theater des Vampires, has a song called "Carmilla Whispers from the Grave" in his debut solo album, De Vampyrica Philosophia (2005).
• Theatres des Vampires, an extreme Italian gothic metal band, has produced a single video entitled "Carmilla" for his album Moonlight Waltz . They also refer the novel in many other songs.

Periodical

• A Japanese lesbian magazine named Carmilla, as Carmilla "attracts heterosexual women into the world of love between women".

Radio

(chronological)

• The Columbia Workshop presents the adaptation (CBS, July 28, 1940, 30 minutes). The Lucille Fletcher script, directed by Earle McGill, transfers the story to a contemporary New York state and allows Carmilla (Jeanette Nolan) to claim her victim Helen (Joan Tetzel).
• Character Hesselius was featured as a hero detective in the episode of The Hall of Fantasy, The Shadow People (September 5, 1952), broadcast on Mutual Broadcasting Network.
• In 1975, CBS Radio Mystery Theater broadcasted an adaptation by Ian Martin (CBS, July 31, 1975, re-broadcast December 10, 1975). Mercedes McCambridge plays Laura Stanton, Marian Seldes plays Carmilla.
• Vincent Price held an adaptation (reset to 1922 Vienna) by Brainard Duffield, produced and directed by Fletcher Markle, at Sears Radio Theater (CBS, March 7, 1979), with Antoinette Bower and Anne Gibbon.
• On November 20, 1981, the CBC Radio Nightfall series aired a Carmilla adaptation written by Graham Pomeroy and John Douglas.
• BBC Radio 4 broadcasts Don McCamphill's Afternoon Play June 5, 2003, with Anne-Marie Duff as Laura, Brana Bajic as Carmilla and David Warner as Laura's father.

Stage

(chronological)

• Wilford Leach and ETC Company John Braswell held the Carmilla adaptation in repertoire at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club throughout the 1970s.
• In the drama Elfriede Jelinek Illness or Modern Women (1984), a woman, Emily, transforms another woman, Carmilla, into a vampire, and both become lesbians and joins together to drink the blood of children.
• Adaptation of German Carmilla by Friedhelm Schneidewind, from Studio-Theater Saarbruecken, tour of Germany and other European countries (including Romania) from April 1994 to 2000.
• The Wildclaw Theater in Chicago performed a complete adaptation of Carmilla by Aly Renee Amidei in January and February 2011.
• The Zombie Joe Underground Theater Group in North Hollywood took an hour-long adaptation of Carmilla , by David MacDowell Blue, in February and March 2014.
• Carmilla is also on display at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, New York by Harelquin Productions with Meg Owren playing Laura and Dominique Baker-Lanning playing Carmilla.
• The adaptation of David MacDowell Blue Carmilla was performed by The Reedy Point Players of Delaware City in October 2016. The production was directed by Sean McGuire, produced by Gail Springer Wagner, assistant director Sarah Hammond, technical director Kevin Meinhaldt and technical execution by Aniela Meinhaldt. The show features Mariza Esperanza, Shamma Casson and Jada Bennett with performances by Wade Finner, David Fullerton, Fran Lazartic, Nicole Peters Peirce, Gina Olkowski and Kevin Swed.

Television

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