their relationship grows more intense, Laura’s
health begins to decline, and she experiences in-
creasingly disturbing nightmares, eventually alarm-
ing her father, who calls in an elderly doctor, who,
like Van Helsing, recognizes the symptoms of vam-
piric intervention, particularly after learning of
mysterious deaths in the surrounding area. After
considerable investigation, we learn that the vam-
pire is actually the Countess Mircalla von Karn-
stein, who died many years before. Mircalla is an
anagram of Carmilla, which is the false identity the
woman’s spirit has taken for her return. The sexual
implications of their relationship are not explicitly
stated, of course, but they are very heavily implied,
and various film versions that have appeared sub-
sequently have emphasized the sexual nature of
their relationship. Given the prevalence of vam-
pires in modern romance fiction, it is surprising
that this theme remains so little used in main-
stream horror fiction. The story is efficiently and
convincingly told, but Le Fanu’s style and his pref-
erence for atmosphere over action often fail to ap-
peal to modern readers.
Carmillahas been directly filmed at least seven
times since 1963, but several other movies have
drawn on the same basic story. Other stories by Le
Fanu of interest are “Schalken the Painter” (1839),
in which a woman discovers she has been married to
a dead man, “The Haunted Baronet” (1870), a story
of supernatural revenge, and “Green Tea” (1869).
Carroll, Jonathan(1949– )
Some writers start their careers slowly, eventually
producing more significant work that establishes
their reputations. Others make an immediate im-
pression, inviting impossibly high expectations for
their subsequent work. Jonathan Carroll’s first
novel, The Land of Laughs(1980), caused consider-
able comment, but fortunately Carroll has contin-
ued to produce unusual, provocative, and highly
regarded work ever since. Two writers travel to the
hometown of a famous, now deceased fantasy
writer in order to research a biography and dis-
cover that his imaginative creation and the town
where he lives have become intermeshed and that
the border between reality and illusion is not as
distinct as they believed.
Voice of Our Shadow(1983) similarly questions
the nature of consensus reality. An American
tourist in Europe is haunted by the mysterious
death of his brother while they were children. His
life becomes even more unsettled when he discov-
ers that his brother did not die as he has long be-
lieved and that neither of them are entirely
human. The protagonist of Bones of the Moon
(1987) is a woman who is troubled by particularly
vivid dreams that begin to exert influence in the
real world, affecting her objective reality. This was
followed by a related novel, Sleeping in Flame
(1988), wherein a similarly troubled man enlists
the aid of a magician when his dreams reveal se-
crets of another lifetime. A horror film producer
commits suicide in A Child across the Sky(1989),
and an old friend tries to discover what drove him
to it. His investigations reveal that the dead man
drew his inspiration from the land of the dead and
set loose a dark force that threatens the living.
These three and the following four titles constitute
a thematically linked sequence, although the sepa-
rate titles do not have common characters.
The Black Cocktail (1990) is a novella in
which a man discovers that a childhood friend has
not aged even though years have passed since they
were last together, or at least that’s what appears to
have happened. It is a cleverly worked out blend of
the fantastic and the intricacies of human psychol-
ogy, although the story falters toward the end. The
protagonist of Outside the Dog Museum(1991) is an
architect who suffers a nervous breakdown, under-
takes a project for an Arab potentate, and discov-
ers that there is genuine magic in the world. After
Silence(1992), though thematically linked, con-
tains no fantastic elements. Death personified
takes a hand in events in From the Teeth of Angels
(1994), which suggests that all of the protagonists
in the previous books may have been mere play-
things in the hands of a supernatural power.
Carroll’s most recent novels have been quieter
but equally effective. The Marriage of Sticks(1999)
is a contemporary ghost story handled very uncon-
ventionally. A woman is troubled when she learns
of the death of her high school sweetheart and then
begins catching glimpses of him in crowds and else-
where, until he eventually confronts her, revealing
the possibilities she might have experienced if sheCarroll, Jonathan 47