Carmilla

by Sheridan Le Fanu

Overview

Laura, the nineteen-year-old daughter of an Englishman, lives in an isolated schloss in the wilderness of Styria. Though she loves her widowed father dearly, she yearns for company her own age. When the household takes in a young woman after a carriage accident, Laura dares to hope that the two might strike up a friendship. Passionate in her affection, the strange and beautiful Carmilla entrances her companion. Yet Laura harbours an undercurrent of disquiet - for their guest shares a face with an unearthly and terrifying childhood memory...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9791190059961
Publisher:	????
Publication date:	05/31/2023
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (28 August 1814 - 7 February 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. Three of his best known works are Uncle Silas, "Carmilla" and The House by the Churchyard.

Although Thomas Le Fanu tried to live as though he were well-off, the family was in constant financial difficulty. Thomas took the rectorships in the south of Ireland for the money, as they provided a decent living through tithes. However, from 1830, as the result of agitation against the tithes, this income began to fall and it ceased entirely two years later. In 1838 the government instituted a scheme of paying rectors a fixed sum, but in the interim the Dean had little besides rent on some small properties he had inherited. In 1833 Thomas had to borrow £100 from his cousin Captain Dobbins (who himself ended up in the debtors' prison a few years later) to visit his dying sister in Bath, who was also deeply in debt over her medical bills. At his death Thomas had almost nothing to leave to his sons and the family had to sell his library to pay off some of his debts. His widow went to stay with the younger son William.

Sheridan Le Fanu studied law at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. Under a system peculiar to Ireland he did not have to live in Dublin to attend lectures, but could study at home and take examinations at the university when necessary. He was called to the bar in 1839, but he never practiced and soon abandoned law for journalism. In 1838 he began contributing stories to the Dublin University Magazine, including his first ghost story, entitled "The Ghost and the Bone-Setter" (1838). He became owner of several newspapers from 1840, including the Dublin Evening Mail and the Warder.

Le Fanu died in his native Dublin on 7 February 1873, at the age of 58. Today there is a road and a park in Ballyfermot, near his childhood home in south-west Dublin, named after him.