CARMILLA: The vampire book that started all vampire books

Some references and fun facts:
The Land Beyond the Forest by E. Gerard (1888) was a book referenced by Bram Stocker during his writing of Dracula.
The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling (Poem - 1897)
Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest (1845)
The Vampyre by John William Polidori (1819)
Jure Grando Alilović (1578–1656) - a villager from Istria who was a real person described as a vampire.
Also there's an Old Russian text from 1047, which used the term "upir". The word "upir" may have meant "the thing at the feast or sacrifice" and was a euphemism to avoid saying the creature's name.
The word "vampire" first appeared in English in 1732.

Vampires appeared in poetry before novels - The Bride of Corinth (1797) and Der Vampir(1748). The same year as Polidori's Vampyre (1819) was The Black Vampire: A legend of St.Domingo by Uriah Derick D'Arcy. Also, Wake not the dead (1823) by Ernst Raupach.

I love your review, but must point out you are imposing a view of homosexuality that did not exist circa 1870. I'm not saying that era was no homophobic, but rather its view of such things was very different from our own. Not so much viewing someone as "gay" for example as seeing such acts as a sin to which some people are prone, akin to lying or theft or sex outside marriage or not attending Mass. I would also note CARMILLA feels very akin to a tale of faerie from Le Fanu's homeland, Ireland. In those tales a human has an intimate encounter with someone Fey, and even if they return to the human world afterwards are never the same. The fact that all the vampire hunters are servants of what was viewed at the time (rightly) as a tyranny adds to the ambiguity imho.
And I feel I must point out Le Fanu was literally describing actual vampire lore, and even gives us the titles of the books he used for research. That IS the lore.
As for why the dark skinned woman could be seen in the carriage--I myself think it was to suggest the parallels between CArmilla and Laura, that each have two older women around them. Laura has her governesses and Carmilla the Countess and this other person who may be the "Moksa" she asks for when she wakes. Lots of details within the story are never explained, but portraying a black woman as ugly because she actually has ugly features does not strike me as inherently racist. It can be taken so, and reasonably so. But I think of it as a startling otherworldly detail (along with the question of who these allies of Carmilla are, and what are they doing?)
Thank you so much for your video! I have shared it with some vampire groups on Facebook!

Hot take: Carmilla's possessive and selfish love for Laura (which slowly kills Laura) is a mirror of Laura's father selfish love for his daughter, which also slowly kills Laura.

I can't tell with certainty, but the idea that suicides can turn into vampires might actually come from real folklore.

I love thus book

“Yeah… I don’t think the use of the word ‘stealing’ is the proper term in this context. ‘Inspired’ is much more accurate, which is what every great work of art, whether literary, cinematic, painted, sculpted, etc., is very much guilty of. Tolkien is known to have borrowed a lot from classic literary sources like The Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) and The Völsunga Saga, to name a few, for his works (The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit). Everything in regards to art is, in some ways, a remix and retelling of something older. To me, stealing is when someone shamelessly takes the entirety of an idea (not pieces for inspirational purposes) and tries to pass it off as their own unique, original idea.”

Just read this a while ago and the vampires I imagined being Ana! No joke! She makes the perfect person to represent Carmella because she is young smart charismatic and seems kind, no one would expect her to be a vampire.

congrats on 6.66k subs on october’s start

1. The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories contains some of the early vampire lit. mentioned in the comments below, and includes "Carmilla."
2. It's hard to think of these stories as explicit warnings. The written warnings you read aloud are brief enough to be perfunctory in light of how much time the authors subsequently spend on the erotic elements of the story. These guys wrote hot stories to make pulses race. They probably wanted to sell books without getting into too much hot water.
3. Perhaps they did subscribe to the mores of the day, Christian or otherwise, and were xenophobic and racist. However as vampires stories are still going strong - though we are obviously still xenophobic and racist - I don't think it's the othering in these stories that make them compelling... it's our own fantasies. This is erotic fiction. It was surely popular in its day as erotic fiction for all who enjoyed it.
4. I do think both tales function as an implicit warning about narcissism as well as the devouring aspect of immature love (as you stated). The promiscuous "warnings" in the stories serve more to break taboo for the purpose of arousing the reader. If the authors were worried about promiscuity they wouldn't have written these books.
5. Apples and Oranges comparison, but it's hard to fault Bram Stoker for shamelessly stealing from Carmilla any more than we blame Disney for profiting far more from The Little Mermaid than Hans Christian Andersen. The story doesn't belong wholly to either. It's reasonable to assume Carmilla, being folkloric in origin (as commenters below have stated or implied), was not entirely Le Fanu's creation.
6. Thank you for making this thoughtful video, and for celebrating the season in an intelligent way that generates discussion.

I haven't read Carmilla in a while but my recollection is that I enjoyed it. I loved how even in its brevity it managed to establish some gorgeous imagery and evocative prose, while telling a lean, efficient story. I don't recall the sapphic tones directly, but vaguely I remember thinking that their treatment was surprisingly less harsh than I would've expected from a book it's age - it seemed less openly condemning of the actual sapphic qualities and more so of the vampirism. Id have to reread it of course to confirm/deny, but yea. Overall I remember liking it and being inspired to write a vampire piece because of it.

I was shocked how early this was written and that it had a sapphic tone even though she didn’t have the best intentions lmao

Isn’t this also a web series??

I say this unapologetically, Carmilla is FAR superior to Dracula!

Yess! So psyched to hear you talking about Carmilla, Ana. Given the original Carmilla was published in 1870s, it was quite obviously written for the old timey's male gaze. Carmilla is the embodiment of female sexuality/lesbianism in the story, and the fact that all the male characters see her as this evil that needs to be exorcized, speaks volumes. While I love the OG Carmilla, I agree with you that there are a lot of problematic themes when it comes to racism, sexuality, etc. I actually published a Carmilla retelling for the female gaze while staying true-ish to the original. I say true-ish because there is explicit spice that the OG didn't veer into (though I was hoping it might lol) and the racist undertones are not in this one obv. If you're interested in taking a gander, it's called My Carmilla: A Sapphic Vampire Romance. Happy reading xoxo

GIRL…. I am studying psychology but my dream is to be an author. PLEEEAAASEEE make a video on how you managed to do both.. and in such a short time??? You cannot be over 25 years old I SWEAR

<3

I read this for the first time recently but thankfully I read the version edited by Carmen Maria Machado who goes into some very interesting and, I believe, essential history of the inspiration behind the novel, as well as pointing out the prejudice injected by the author. I highly recommend reading that version. Also, there’s some gorgeous illustrations in it as well.

On the Polidori point, that really is where modern vampire fiction started as it was published in 1819, predating even Carmilla by 50 years but is also technically a short-story, so you are correct to refer to Carmilla as the first vampire book. Also, Polidori's story has similar homoerotic elements, the main character, Count Ruthven, directly based on the flamboyantly bisexual Lord Byron.

Yes, suicide is a theme in this book, first referenced in the painting of Cleopatra with the adders at her bosom. And Carmilla, by seeking Laura's quasi consent to her own murder, is trying to make her something akin to a suicide. Le Fanu does not seem to have any particular antipathy towards suicides, but yes, he is a Christian, and he does think suicide is a sin. In other words, don't do it kids! He is also accurately describing vampiric lore in which he really does have a genuine interest.. Strange that this makes you so angry. Do you think the kids SHOULD kill themselves? Yes I agree that factors such as illness or madness can deprive a person of choice, but that goes for any prohibition. Including murder. And Le Fanu explores these themes too. Both Carmilla and Laura are victims, acted upon by forces beyond their control. It is you who are being ideological. Do you really think that no person who ever killed himself ever had a choice? Seems to me that there may have been countless people who have resisted a temptation to suicide because they did not want to offend God. Can you give them a better reason? Medication? Psychiatric confinement?

I've written my own retelling of Carmilla, using ideas from other vampire stories as well One major difference is I've drained the sexual aspect of the story for various reasons. The relationship does remain an obsessive one. Suicide is also an issue for both the characters involved.

Your next book will be the next trend setter.

I’m a big fan of all the lurid and trashy European vampire films from the 1970’s inspired by Carmilla

Great topic.

Truth be told, most people think Dracula started it all, but not true.
Carmilla's story is so rich with original lore that you just don't see modern vampire stories.

Thanks for making this video! Great timing with Halloween fast approaching.

Carmilla is frighteningly deep. Emphasis on frightening, for as a character, she is more than what she says and does.

Laura too possesses this quality, and it is why her account is so fascinating to read.

Because they are, each of them, phenomenally interpretable characters.
But Laura is rarely seen as in-moral-contention or contrition (read: not my take of our victim, not in the least. She is a slothful, capricious, and passive person with little will or patience. Laura is not utterly devoid of traits in the outlined situation depicted by the novel that shine upon her in a negative light).

Her counterpart’s character on the other hand, is very much in question, and by the vast majority.

Carmilla is, after all, the resurrection-man who steals her own corpse. Her Vampirism is a fact of her existence, whether she enjoys it or very much otherwise.

She is Evil, in being an unnatural immortal monster what preys by-necessity or by-its-near-neighbor-want upon the living.

That does not mean she is also Immune From Suffering. That does not mean the endless passing of centuries weighs not upon her shoulders, nor the loneliness, nor the poisonously cruel company she keeps.

That the ‘mother’ character would repeatedly abandon her in different feeding grounds, an evidentially routine happenstance, cannot be regarded kindly.

The other one comes off as more directly unpleasant, and leaves one to wonder if the disgusted look is for Laura…. Or Carmilla. (which some seem to read as racism… idk, a very distant maybe? I never read it as such. Their otherness for me came in the scary snarl upon their face as they glared out the carriage window; them being black was merely a strange curiosity for me as the depiction of the Schloss did not lend itself to my mind as being remotely close for any persons of ‘recent’-African-descent to have accessed in the timeframe it is suggested the story was written, let alone the year itself. If the author was profoundly racist, I didn’t feel it through any of my readings of the text, and I do not regard the author as so incapable a wordsmith to be unable to descriptively demonstrate their worldview should that have been their aim. I’m pretty sure the character in question is a woman, slightly interesting for a man of said time to have written. Either I am incredibly underinformed of narrative trends of the time (very possible and I should love to be enlightened otherwise, because there’s some far-more-serious racism (and other very fun things) in Robinson Crusoe and Around The World In Eighty Days.)), or Ugly-Black-Woman-Maybe-Monster wasn’t trending (contrast with Baba Yaga, a hideous monster woman character who happens to be Slavic in origin, and I don’t think a single description of Yaga(‘s true face, the one she wears when she isn’t pretending to be someone else to lure in prey (read: children) compares kindly compared to the briefly mentioned black woman in Carmilla).

A Journey Of Black and Red, a modern Vampiric work set in the American South before its Civil War: profoundly captures the spirit of what I should think this particular form of racism depicted by a competent author might look like.

More important than something one can easily miss due to how small of a part it has: Carmilla.

Where one person might easily see a selfish love that cares not for consent and the well-being of their ‘target of affection’, and draws parallels with two of the greatest crimes committable:

Another can easily see a boundless love unwilling to allow any bondage laid upon it, even time and life, and a desperate prayer that the other is as equally consumed by passion and ardor as they.

Because Carmilla confesses her love to Laura through those very words, and finds a reception of both reciprocation and repulsion.

Just when Carmilla reads Laura as ready to go further, she finds rejection in Laura’s reluctance. I strongly suggest a reread of those passages, considering them in that particular context.

Carmilla is more than what she says and what she does: she is also why she says it, and how earnest she means it.

This facet of her character shines through in all ways. For an enigmatic murderous monster entirely possessed by lust and personal gratification:

Carmilla spends a disproportionate amount of time through the novel dealing with very human feelings. She is at times staggeringly depressed, and even scared of
Laura; refusing to open the door for her as their love deepens, even escaping through the window rather than confronting what she fears. It is during this time that the first deaths start occurring in the town if I remember correctly.

Falling in love with a person you cannot stop yourself from killing cannot be interpreted as anything less than tragic.

Falling deeply in love with someone who has rejected you or otherwise not accepted you is painful.

If Laura was not so very taken with Carmilla, then it would not be a tragic love story, but just one more story of man vs monster.

And though Carmilla/Mircalla is dead and gone forever:

Laura still loves that monster, and she will never love again.

I wonder if the shift from telling to showing has to do with the explosion of visual media in the last century or so? The Victorians didn't have film or animation in the modern sense, and certainly not on any large scale. Even comics were still in their infancy, so the only wide-spread sequential visual mediums were things like the zoetrope, which could only show a few seconds' worth of motion. And single static images can include a surprising amount of visual storytelling, but nothing like the scope of a novel or movie. So before all that was invented, the only real way to tell a story was....to tell the story, as though the characters were telling the reader about something that happened to them, as opposed to now where we watch a story unfold as though we're present for it.

Amazing!!!! I had never heard of this story before!!

I wish they went into Carmilla's character and opinions more in the book. I wanted to know more about how she became a vampire and how she feels about living that life! Her death seemed so sudden without hearing any final words or goodbyes from her.

"Many of us have heard of Bram Stokers Dracula, but not many of us have heard of the book before and inspired Dracula and Carmilla, John Polidori's The Vampyre. And anyone into Vampire literature should know all these names..."

Yes, I recently read Carmilla, and it definitely encapsulates Christian culture’s fear and ostracization of anything that is “other”. Darkness, vampires, being gay, and being repelled by Christianity are all linked together, and all forces to be beaten by “the good guys”. While I respect the novel for what it is and acknowledge that was the way people thought at the time and we’ve gotten much better since then, I also know how harmful and inaccurate that worldview is.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire novella, "Carmilla" was first published as a serial in The Dark Blue from 1871-1872. So, if you want to ignore "The Vampyre" (by John Polidori, published in 1819) as the story that started vampire fiction, okay. But you can’t ignore that "Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood", was also published as a serial from 1845–1847 (how many years before "Carmilla"?). The important phrase here is “published as a serial”.

Another excellent video. With that said, when you were reading the description of Carmilla from the book, I could not help but think you were talking about yourself. Just sayin'...

This Host is so pretty

What i liked about this book is how you can feel how lonely the protagonist is. Even the same can be said for Carmilla's character. She just wanted a friend :(

Vampiric themes in horror are pretty much centered sex, sexuality, and lost innocence. Vampires have also been associated with aristocracy since the very first The Vampyre by John William Polidori.

Hell, Interview With a Vampire can be interpreted as Louis discovering his homosexuality after his encounter with Lestat. Claudia being a victim showcasing Lestat’s depravity and Louis’ compassion and humanity.

Author: Warns girls against girl love.

Also author: Proceeds to write some of the hottest sapphic smut.

It's hard to say Bram Stoker stole from Carmilla, that whole thing just sounded like revisionist history and discounts all the vampire stories that were before Carmilla and Dracula.

Some think Dracula's Guest (by Stoker, possibly an excised chapter of Dracula) references Carmilla. Though as a tribute or denunciation, i'm not sure

Wasn't Carmilla inspired by Countess Elizabeth Báthory the same way Dracula was inspired by Vlad the Impaler?

Why do you swear?
It's very unbecoming and unprofessional.

Hi, Vampires enthusiast and Dr in Literature here! I LOVED the analysis of the psychology of the characters you made here!
Besides Carmilla, I own "John Polidori, The Vampyre and other tales of the macabre" from Oxford World's classics and the introduction written by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick is phenomenal, it literally answers all the questions that you asked in the video, summarising how vampires started (very much differently than Polidory was used to, too) and evolved in literature. I really suggest anybody to read it if they can, that is a VERY good volume for lovers of gothic horror literature. I will just say that all this craze for horror fiction indeed came after Polidori's The Vampyre was published (erroneously in Byron's name but they explain everything) and developed within magazines. polidori was the very first to give the portrait of a noble, good looking, weel groomed and charming vampire, from which Stoker created Dracula and Le Fanu his Carmilla. Also, the very first accounts of "vampired" are from Dom Calmet. Really suggest to read his treaty if you can, that's the real deal.

📚❤

Le Fanu got his inspiration from reading Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel. The antagonist is Geraldine whom Carmilla shares some similar aspects. Even though Geraldine is never mentioned as a being a vampire, she's an evil "entity" and has vampire likeness to her. Dracula is okay but I like Carmilla and Christabel are my favorites when it comes to old vampire stories. The old 70s movies, The Vampire Lovers is loosely based on Carmilla. That is one of my favorite vampire movies next to Bram Stoker's Dracula.

“Varney the Vampire” came out in 1845, also before Dracula, and has much more in common with Dracula. So much so that some scenes in Dracula appear to have been (more or less) taken straight from Varney.

"It has been argued that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel (written between 1797 and 1801, but not published until 1816) has influenced the development of vampire fiction: the heroine Christabel is seduced by a female supernatural being called Geraldine who tricks her way into her residence. Though Coleridge never finished the poem, some argue that his intended plot had Geraldine eventually trying to marry Christabel after having assumed the appearance of Christabel's absent lover." - Wikipedia

That's my daughter's name! So now I think I should read it

It îs not the fault of the author when he describes that death by suicide leads to vampirism. As a fellow romanian, i beleive You should know îs also in our traditions. It was beleived back then that suicide leads to vampirism because such person would be burried without a holy Christian mass, which would lead the person to not find his/her rest and peace in the afterlife and would be unable to move on în his Death. If You look up strigoi and moroi that îs the ancient explanation. These beleived were waaaay before these writers worked on their stories. They both borrowed from old beleived and very old stories already known to the elders. IT was not something they came up with.

THAT COVER oh take me away

I read Carmella many years ago and really enjoyed it. It made me want to see the movies based on the book. Some of the best ones include Vampyr (1931), Blood and Roses (1960), The Vampire Lovers (1970), Twins of Evil (1971), and the 1989 episode Carmella of Nightmare Classics with Meg Tillly as Carmilla. All of them are good. I’d love to hear your comments on them. Thanks!

The reason that God says that suicide is a sin is because life is a gift and that throwing it away is the same as throwing away a gift that anyone else has given to you. Also your blood is sacred so sacred in fact that it is a sin to take into yourself the blood of another. Your blood is unique and belongs only to you after all it carries your DNA.