Carmilla was first published in the periodical The Dark Blue in four serialized segments. The first segment was published in December 1871, and the following three were each published a month apart, with the final installment appearing in March 1872. These chapters were accompanied by three illustrations which were drawn by D.H. Friston and engraved by C.M. Jenkin.
The journal The Dark Blue was created by John Christian Freund and first published in March 1871 (Chapman). Though the journal was only in publication for three years, it received acclaim for the quality and variety of the content it produced, as well as the notable writers who were published in it. The periodical was reportedly named after the colors of Oxford University, which Freund and many of the periodical’s contributors had attended (Chapman). This fact speaks to the journal’s educated and likely well-connected readership. Though Carmilla would have been considered a middlebrow contribution to the journal, The Dark Blue’s educated and well-received writers and readers suggests that the story was written for such an audience.
Following the story’s publication in The Dark Blue, it was published in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s anthology In a Glass Darkly as a short story (Le Fanu xiii). Notably, this version of Carmilla added “The Prologue,” which was not present in the version published in The Dark Blue (Le Fanu xiv). In the prologue, Le Fanu introduces the story as though it is a true record collected by a Doctor Hesselius. This addition frames the supernatural story and its female narrator Laura through the lens of the doctor’s male medical authority. This male-centered framing contrasts the at-the-time shocking nature of the novel’s powerful and assertive female villain Carmilla.
Though Carmilla is said to have partially inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was published over two decades later, it didn’t gain much notice when it was first published. This is likely due to the female-centric plot and the subversive sexuality of the vampire Carmilla. However, the novella is now regarded as having had a strong role in establishing the conventions of the vampire novel, as well as providing insight into Victorian attitudes towards female sexuality. Consequently, the novella has gained popularity in the late 20th and early 21st century, resulting in increased scholarly discourse and several book, TV, and film adaptations.
Works Cited
Chapman, Alison. “The Dark Blue, and J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla’ (1871-1872).” The University of Victoria Libraries, Omeka, 2018, omeka.library.uvic.ca/exhibits/show/movable-type/networks/dark_blue_carmilla.html.
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. “Notes on the Text.” Carmilla: A Critical Edition, edited by Kathleen Costello-Sullivan, Syracuse University Press, 2013, pp. xiii–xvi. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1j5d4xp.5. Accessed 12 Nov. 2024.
I think Carmilla is a fascinating text, partly because of the ambiguous frame narrative you discussed. I did not actually know it was introduced later, and it definitely does add a different effect to the novella since I believe it confirms Laura’s early death. Whether or not Carmilla eventually returns to turn Laura, Carmilla still tells an autumnal tale of incipit decline because of that revelation. I also think it’s interesting how the frame narrator emphasizes that readers are putting their trust in a worthy and intelligent narrator, which complicates portraying an easy portrayal of Laura as a complete victim.
coolshark, Carmilla is such a fascinating text and character—I need to re-listen to the audiobook again when I have the time! Her connections to the “femme fatale” trope (one that is still popular today in characters like Tomie by Junji Ito and Mystique from the X-men) for sure remind me of Bram Stoker’s female vampires in Dracula. In fact, the Count’s master-plan of the novel is to turn the women of Britain to vampires first, and by using their femme fatale talents, they will seduce and ruin the weak-willed men. I’m unsure if you know of the show Castlevania (an animated series based on a video game of the same name), but they have their own adaptation of this classic vampire femme-fatale. She is a gorgeously dangerous dictator, a vampire ruler that has has command over an army and feeds on human men, working closely with two other vampire women to bring her plans for conquest to light. Castlevania takes and adapts multiple classic vampires, including Dracula (the main antagonist), so Carmilla is a major character in the media for the exact reasons you have outlined above in your publication history. She is powerful and assertive, much like the classic character was so rebelliously when she first appeared, and she plays with ideas of female sexuality and its “dangers.” However, one key difference is that she lacks the lens you describe that the original Carmilla appears under: one of a male perspective, describing the story through different eyes. Castlevania is third-person and rather omniscient in nature, so viewers see this adaptation of Carmilla through the lens of her own plans and desires, gaining a deep understanding of her motivations, unlike the mystery that shrouds the vampiric woman in the original.
This is really interesting, and I have a number of questions about the post. First, what does the prologue add? That is, why does the author want to frame the story as nonfiction? What does this framing add to it?
I think that maybe the goal is to enhance the horror factor. That, in some ways, thinking about Vampire stories as something that could happen is really rather terrifying. We tend to find things sucking our blood to be gross.
As a final note, was it typical for these kinds of stories to be published in what seem to high-brow literary magazines or is this novel an exception?
I love your analysis of the connection between vampirism and sexuality! You make strong points regarding societal/cultural taboos of the era. During your class presentation, we discussed that while Mina was an ideal woman, she also had some qualities that were considered more masculine at the time, such as her intelligence. Admittedly, I have not read Dracula, so I don’t know how prominent these qualities are in Mina. This being said, do you think Mina’s survival is due to how she has the morals or “heart of a woman” and the “mind of a man” as Val Helsing puts it?
I loved Dracula, so I will have to give this a read! I think your comment on how her subversive sexuality and the novella’s female-centric plot made it difficult to sell like Dracula did. This is especially intriguing when considering how sexualized the female vampires were in Dracula, though here in heterosexual circumstances. Perhaps Carmilla, as you stated, truly led the way for tropes in the Gothic and because it didn’t sell very well was able to be “adapted” with a heterosexual storyline.