Hello,

For this blog, I will be talking about the book “Carmilla” from pages 1 to 292. This book is very interesting as we get into the theory of vampires. As to summarize the book, the book is about a girl named Laura who lives in this castle in a very dense forest. Laura becomes very lonely because she has nobody to talk to except for passing people and her governess. One day, a woman arrives named Carmilla. Laura seems to be very attracted to Carmilla. Laura ends up getting sick and it turns out that Carmilla is actually a woman named Mircalla and was a vampire so they went to Mircallas's grave and basically did everything they could do to make sure Carmilla wasn't coming back which includes cremation, staking and decapitated. This book is very good and gets a 9 rating out of a 1 – 10 rating.

To start off this blog I would like to go into detail about the author of this book which is Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a very wealthy family. Joseph Sheridan started off writing poems during his childhood years and went to Trinity College and studied law and graduated in 1837. Le Fanu wrote and published his first story, 'The Ghost and the Bone-Setter' which was in the Dublin University Magazine in 1838. He then joined the staff of the Dublin University Magazine and decided to go and start his career in journalism.

Joseph got married in 1842 to Susanna Bennett and had a total of four children. As some of his horror stories seem depressing, this was because his wife had died in 1858. Le Fanu was very depressed about this. After this, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu became 'The Invisible Prince' because of his lifestyle. One reason they call him that is because he rarely went out into the town. His lifestyle dramatically change when the death of his wife occured. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu died February 7^th , 1873. His works were finally published in 1923.

On going to the book, homosexuality was very identifying once you realize that it is actually in the “Carmilla”. Laura seems to be widely attracted to Carmilla and seems to be turning Lesbian. According to the Online Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, “Lesbian” means 'A woman who is homosexual. To state this in 'common english' terms, she likes other women. I believe that Carmilla had some special power that makes people (male and female) to be attracted to her, thus a connection happening between Carmilla and Laura.

The Catholic Emancipation was a period during the 18^th and 19^th century where in britain, people were trying to reduce the restrictions of people who were Roman Catholics. One of the broken restrictions were that Roman Catholics would be able to sit in the British Parliament. The British Parliament is a board of people who hold all the Legislative power in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland ( http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/cath2.html ).

The Irish Famine was during the 19^th century. During this period of time there was mass starvation in Ireland. The reason was because a potato disease caught wind in most potato crops and about one-third of Ireland's population ate potatoes and depended on potatos, Irelands population dramatically decreased ( http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm ).

I think that the relationship between these two examples with 'Carmilla' is that during that time of where this book takes place these things are happening, lessening of people, food starvation, which could lead to an outcome of sickness.

Overall, This vampire novel was very enjoying to read,

--Sharon