Carmilla
By Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
Edited by Carmen Maria Machado
“I can’t think of a better guide through this ethereal, infuriating book than Carmen Machado—whose Borgesian imagination unearths for us the possibilities buried in its pages.”
—Jordan Hall, co-creator & writer of Carmilla: The Series
This edition of Carmilla is out of print. Please visit the page for the second edition.
FICTION / Classics
Print ISBN: 978-1-941360-19-4
160 Pages • $14.00 Paperback • $7.99 EPUB
Publication Date: April 23, 2019
Publicity Contact: Feliza Casano
publicity@lanternfishpress.com
“To this hour the image of Carmilla returns to my memory with ambiguous alternations—sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church. Sometimes, I start from a reverie, certain I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door.”
Isolated in a remote mansion in a central European forest, Laura longs for companionship –until a carriage accident brings another young woman into her life: the secretive and sometimes erratic Carmilla. As Carmilla’s actions become more puzzling and volatile, Laura develops bizarre symptoms, and as her health goes into decline, Laura and her father discover something monstrous.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s compelling tale of a young woman’s seduction by a female vampire was a source of influence for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which it predates by over a quarter century. Carmilla was originally serialized from 1871 to 1872 and went on to inspire adaptations in film, opera, and beyond, including the cult classic web series by the same name.
Photo credit: Art Streiber / AUGUST
About the Editor
Carmen Maria Machado’s essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Tin House, VQR, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Guernica, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Michener-Copernicus Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the CINTAS Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia with her wife.
Talking Points for Booksellers & Librarians
Edited with a new introduction by National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado
Basis of the Canadian cult classic web series of the same name; it was followed by a film, Carmilla: The Movie, in 2017
Tie-in/recommendation prior to the publication of the Carmilla web series novelization in early May
Classic horror work perfect for Halloween seasonal recommendations