Carmilla

From the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, the first occult detective in literature, the story of Carmilla itself is the first work of vampire fiction in the history of English literature, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula by a quarter of a century. Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu who was arguably the Stephen King of his time in his region of the world. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871-72), the story is narrated by a young woman, Laura, who is preyed upon by a female vampire. Saddened by the loss of a friend, Laura longs for a companion. A carriage accident outside her home unexpectedly brings a girl of Laura's age into the family's care. Her name is Carmilla. And she is not what she seems. It has inspired several films, including Hammer's The Vampire Lovers (1970), Roger Vadim's Blood & Roses (1960), and Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampir (1932). One cannot deny the important place that Carmilla holds in shifting the portrayal of vampires in modern fiction.