History of the Vampire: Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Continuing our series exploring the vampire, the ever-popular figure and symbol against which we can define our own humanity. Today we will be looking at one of the most influential pre-Dracula vampires in Carmilla, and exploring all the ways Le Fanu extends previous vampire writings and imbues them with a distinctly contemporary and literary impetus. We will continue in the coming weeks to discuss Dracula, which owes a not inconsiderable debt to Carmilla in how it approaches the figure and crystallises it into the spectre we know today. Weird Horizon is a part of the PodPack Collective, a group of indie podcasters trying to uplift and support each other. I encourage you all to check the members out, you won’t be disappointed.