Welcome back to All Things Eerie and Part II of Sheridan LeFanu’s Carmilla.

Carmilla exhibits the primary characteristics of Gothic fiction.  It includes a supernatural figure, a dark setting of an old castle, a mysterious atmosphere, and ominous or superstitious elements.

When we last met, we were introduced to our narrator, a woman of 27, who relates a frightening experience from her youth which has shaped the fears of her childhood and continues to haunt her.

We also learned a little bit—but not very much—about Carmilla, the beautiful young woman left at the schloss of our narrator and protagonist.  Although Carmilla and our protagonist both remember one another from dreams in childhood, neither apprehends from the other—not yet, anyway—any cause for fear or alarm.

We will see, in tonight’s episodes, two instances when Carmilla betrays her usual dreamy languor with some anger or pique—once, at the passing of a funeral procession and again, when a peddler selling amulets and charms makes a comment about the length and sharpness of Carmilla’s teeth. 

And now, turn down the lights, and join us for Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, Part II, Chapters 3 and 4….