Carmilla

Laura leads a secluded life in a castle buried deep in the Austrian forest, far away from the dangers of the outside world. That is until a horse and carriage crashes nearby one night, and she and her father take in a weary, young traveller – Carmilla. As mysterious as she is beguiling, Carmilla weaves her way into Laura’s heart. Life proves less lonely with a friend. But sinister things start happening as the girls become closer, and the forest isn’t the safe haven it once was.<br><br>Sheridan Le Fanu’s nineteenth-century gothic tale was the first vampire novella. It paved the way for a literary tradition of female and lesbian vampires, and, before <i>Dracula</i>, explored the boundaries of sex and death. Still as chillingly alluring today as it was when it was written in 1871-2, <i>Carmilla </i>now joins Penguin’s Little Clothbound Classics series.