Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Second para of third chapter: Nothing remained to assure us that the adventure had not been an illusion of a moment but the young lady, who just at that moment opened her eyes. I could not see, for her face was turned from me, but she raised her head, evidently looking about her, and I heard a very sweet voice ask complainingly, "Where is mamma?"
I read this in advance of a discussion at Octocon the otehr weekend. It's a classic vampire story from 1872, 26 years before Le Fanu's fellow-countryman Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. It's a much shorter book; the protagonist is a young Anglo-Styrian noblewoman, Laura, whose friend Carmilla is not quite what she seems. Carmilla's vampirism is pretty clearly a lesbian seduction as well; there are a lot of interesting parallels with Dracula, including the first person narrative, sleepwalking, the symptoms of vampirism and the expert who comes in to solve it all (Baron Vordenburg here is the precursor to Van Helsing). The ending is not executed all that gracefully (too much of the important action is offscreen), but otherwise it's a fun, quick read. You can get it here.
I read this in advance of a discussion at Octocon the otehr weekend. It's a classic vampire story from 1872, 26 years before Le Fanu's fellow-countryman Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. It's a much shorter book; the protagonist is a young Anglo-Styrian noblewoman, Laura, whose friend Carmilla is not quite what she seems. Carmilla's vampirism is pretty clearly a lesbian seduction as well; there are a lot of interesting parallels with Dracula, including the first person narrative, sleepwalking, the symptoms of vampirism and the expert who comes in to solve it all (Baron Vordenburg here is the precursor to Van Helsing). The ending is not executed all that gracefully (too much of the important action is offscreen), but otherwise it's a fun, quick read. You can get it here.