One of the best ghost story writers of the 1800s was Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Fans of this type of literature are probably familiar with him, especially those who enjoyed an older style of writing.

“Carmilla” is arguably the best vampire story that predates Bram Stoker and Dracula. It contains some genuinely scary scenes. It also has strong lesbian elements.

I first read “Carmilla” back in high school, but that was so long ago that most of the details had fallen out of the holes in my head when I reread it for the first time last weekend. My memory was that I had really enjoyed it when I was a teenager, and I wasn’t disappointed this time.

The story is told by a woman named Laura who is relating a series of events that occurred to her when she was growing up. Her German mother had died when she was very young, and her father, an Englishman who had worked for the Austrian Empire for years, had bought a small isolated castle when he retired. The girl’s mother had been descended from a noble line whose last son had died some years ago, meaning the line was no longer extant. The ruins of their castle aren’t far from where Laura and her father live.

Laura relates a genuinely scary incident from when she was a small child. She woke to find a woman standing beside her bed. The woman climbs into bed with her and holds her until Laura falls back asleep. Laura feels a piercing pain in her breast and wakes up screaming. The woman slips out of the covers and hides under the bed. She is no longer there when Laura tells the nursemaid who comes in about the woman. The rest of the story takes place when Laura is a teenager.

A retired general who lives in the area and has a niece Laura’s age is planning an extended visit so the young ladies can spend some time together. The girls takes sick and dies just before the visit.

Within a day or so, Laura, her father, her governess, and her tutor are walking by the road when a carriage comes out of the woods at a great speed and crashes almost where they are standing. A woman and her daughter, and maybe someone else, are in the carriage. The woman in the carriage leaves her daughter Carmilla with them while she continues on a mysterious and urgent errand.

Carmilla and Laura recognize each other from the dream they both had as children.

Carmilla has some strange behaviors. She sleeps most of the day, locked in her room. She refuses to participate in the family prayers. She makes romantic advances towards Laura but refuses to answer questions about herself or her past.

Meanwhile, girls in the neighboring villages begin to sicken and die from a mysterious malady. Then Laura begins to fall ill…

The writing style is a bit slower than most contemporary fiction. But the mood, the atmosphere, and the pacing is as good anything being written now. The plot is detailed, and the details add to the richness of the story.

Le Fanu’s works are in the public domain (AFAIK), and electronic copies of “Carmilla” and his other ghost stories are available in inexpensive electronic editions. “Carmilla” has also been anthologized many times, so copies shouldn’t be hard to come by in you want to read it.