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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First things first, Wordsworth Classics is just the worst for evidently having zero editors on staff. They produce books cheaply, but it's because they seem to have pulled a free and poor-quality Project Gutenberg text and just printed it off in book form without even a cursory glance at whether their exclamation points have become the number "1" or if the "TH" in "the" has been read as a lower-case "B" somehow. It makes for a very frustrating read and I need to always remember this and never ever buy their books.
That major frustration aside, I chipped away at this book for quite awhile. I got through the first three stories mainly because I had a lot of time to kill in the repair shop lounge while getting our car ready for a cross-Canada trip that it never ended up taking. Then I skipped on to "Carmilla" because that was the real draw, and there I was not disappointed.
"Carmilla" deserves its fame and fascination. It persists as one of the greatest vampire stories, and that's after more than a century of imitations and derivations. I always meant to read it and wish I hadn't waited so long because it's such a maddeningly perfect Gothic tale. I knew about the "lesbian vampires" reputation before reading it, but that only made me expect it would be way more of an undertone. I thought I'd have to read pretty deeply into the text. I thought I'd have to rely on my knowledge of 19th-century inferences to sexual deviance. I didn't expect it to be as blatant, as passionate, as... endearing? I loved it.
I was also surprised at how much I liked "The Room in the Dragon Volant," which I read a bit later. I thought it would be work the way "Green Tea" or "The Familiar" was, but I ended up really enjoying the naive narrator, self-absorbed and utterly human for it, and even without a trace of the supernatural it was still the most shiver-inducing of all the stories in its climax.
I feel I've got to read [b:Uncle Silas|49190|Uncle Silas|Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367864839s/49190.jpg|2847087] still, and then likely feel done with Le Fanu for the time being. Maybe in the lead-up to Hallowe'en next year.
That major frustration aside, I chipped away at this book for quite awhile. I got through the first three stories mainly because I had a lot of time to kill in the repair shop lounge while getting our car ready for a cross-Canada trip that it never ended up taking. Then I skipped on to "Carmilla" because that was the real draw, and there I was not disappointed.
"Carmilla" deserves its fame and fascination. It persists as one of the greatest vampire stories, and that's after more than a century of imitations and derivations. I always meant to read it and wish I hadn't waited so long because it's such a maddeningly perfect Gothic tale. I knew about the "lesbian vampires" reputation before reading it, but that only made me expect it would be way more of an undertone. I thought I'd have to read pretty deeply into the text. I thought I'd have to rely on my knowledge of 19th-century inferences to sexual deviance. I didn't expect it to be as blatant, as passionate, as... endearing? I loved it.
I was also surprised at how much I liked "The Room in the Dragon Volant," which I read a bit later. I thought it would be work the way "Green Tea" or "The Familiar" was, but I ended up really enjoying the naive narrator, self-absorbed and utterly human for it, and even without a trace of the supernatural it was still the most shiver-inducing of all the stories in its climax.
I feel I've got to read [b:Uncle Silas|49190|Uncle Silas|Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367864839s/49190.jpg|2847087] still, and then likely feel done with Le Fanu for the time being. Maybe in the lead-up to Hallowe'en next year.
Goodness it has taken me a while to read this! Normally I can read no matter what is going on in the background (TV, office chatter), but for this book I found I needed all my concentration, possibly because of the language. That said, I did enjoy this collection of stories. The Room In Le Dragon Volant was my least favourite, it was quite long in comparison to the other stories, the main character was easily led and the ending felt very rushed to me. My favourite was Carmilla, a very creepy story and although I could see where it was heading it did not spoil it in anyway.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced