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AngusPodgorny posted:I wouldn’t have guessed based on the writing that Carmilla pre-dated Dracula, because it’s much more readable. Although based on having also read Lair of the White Worm, maybe Bram Stoker just wasn’t a good writer. Carmilla is also short enough that I went ahead and finished it already, so everyone should check it out. If I'm not mistaken, Lair of the White Worm was written after Stoker had a stroke so that explains why it's such a drastic step down in writing quality from Dracula. Having re-read both Carmilla and Dracula over the weekend I prefer the former, but the latter still has some great sequences - Harker in the castle, the Demeter, etc. - and the epistolary format is really well executed. My only quibble with Carmilla is the clumsy way it's shoehorned into the Dr. Hesselius stories.
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Oct 5, 2022 13:39
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"Green Tea" and "The Familiar" are both great horror stories in the same Hesselius collection as Carmilla. I really should read more Le Fanu. And while perhaps not totally appropriate for a Book Barn thread, I would definitely recommend the Hammer films adaptation The Vampire Lovers if you can find it. The biggest divergence from the book that I remember is that General Spielsdorf and Laura's father are combined into one character. But since he's played by Peter Cushing doing his normal Van Helsing routine I can't complain. Otherwise it's pretty faithful and, being a Hammer film, dials up the sexuality to be even more overt than in the book. 
MeatwadIsGod fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Oct 5, 2022 |
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Oct 5, 2022 16:37
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Ben Nevis posted:The spoiler is so commonly associated with Vampires these days, I wondered if it was from folklore. I also wondered a bit as to whether Stoker was familiar with the work, mostly just because of the similarity with the dead ward Rheinfeldt and Renfield. I did enjoy the book, it was a nice Halloween read, and yes, very gay. I'm pretty sure Stoker had read it. If you read "Dracula's Guest" which was part of Dracula in early drafts before Stoker took it out, there's a cool scene where Harker comes upon a graveyard where a Styrian countess is entombed. I figure that's a little nod to Carmilla.
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Oct 10, 2022 18:25
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