Dark & Twisty

I just finished listening to the vampire story Carmilla.  This story is legendary in the canon of vampyric literature.  The story has been much up held as the first lesbian vampire story.  It is true that much of the story has a homoerotic mood.  The main villian, the vampire Carmilla, seems to only feast on women, and young women at that. The story was written during Victorian times, so any direct reference to such is not made.

The interesting take on this story is that it is set in Germany and Austria, although the protagonist's father is of British descent and keeps some of the traditions of England.

The story for the most part does a good job of establishing some well known tropes of the Vampire literature.  The vampire still comes out at night.  She sleeps in the grave, and staking her kills her.  There is still a heavy connection between sin and becoming a vampire.  This story seems to bring in the idea that suicide caused one to be a vampire. 

The story is rather boring however.  It reads like Jane Austin wrote a vampire novella.  It was much to romantic for my particular taste.  I think that some of the ideas surrounding the vampire character were good.  The discription of being bitten compared to being stuck by needles is very good and descriptive.  Bram Stoker never really gave such a good take on the story. I think the best thing about the story was that the vampire was female instead of male.  She is still of noble blood which seems to be a huge part of being a vampire in early literature.  This of course is probably a class thing.  Also, Carmilla could be based on the story of Elisabeth Bathory, the countess who did drink and bath in girl's blood. 

The best part of Carmilla is that it seems designed for such wonderful production companies as Hammer Films and Roger Corman.  That makes things wonderful when you can see Peter Cushing staking a large breasted vampire.