Dracula. Carmilla (set of 2 books)

“Carmilla” is a gothic novella from 1872 by Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the first works of vampire literature, written a quarter of a century before Bram Stoker's “Dracula” (1897). In an isolated castle, deep in the Austrian forests of Styria, Laura leads a secluded life with her father and a few servants. One moonlit night, a carriage crashes in the field, bringing an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. Laura and her father invite her to stay with them until she recovers. The beautiful stranger accepts the offer. Soon, strange events begin to unfold: Laura falls ill, her condition worsens with each passing day, and at night she is tormented by attacks of suffocation. After several painful nights, young Laura is about to learn the shocking truth about the mysterious guest. The story is narrated by a young girl who is hunted by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein (Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla). The edition also includes the novella “The Mystery of the 'Floating Dragon' Inn.” Bram Stoker's “Dracula” has given Western culture an image of extraordinary symbolic power: the virtuously portrayed titular character has stepped off the pages of the novel and begun a life of its own in the collective consciousness. Thus arose one of the most popular myths of the 20th century – the myth of vampirism. Although “Dracula” is far from the first narrative about vampires, it became the true classic of the genre and its benchmark. One of the main works of English horror literature impresses with unexpected and unconventional plot twists, erotic subtexts, depictions of nightmares and wonders, the tenuous boundaries between life and death, reality and fantasy.