Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

• Prologue, p.3
• There is a frame for this story. The chapters are written by an "intelligent lady." There is also a note attached by Doctor Hesselius which is not presented to us. The doctor was corresponding with the lady, and while the publisher wished to talk with the lady himself, he learns she is now dead. No worries, however. The narrative is undertaken with "a conscientious particularity."
• Chapter 1, "An Early Fright," p.4
• The narrator is a 19 year old girl who lives with her English father in a castle in Slovenia with two governesses, Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine. Her Slovenian mother died in her infancy. Their castle is 7 miles away from the nearest inhabited village.
• In one of her earliest memories, the narrator is visited at night by a pretty faced young woman who joins her in bed. She is woken when the mysterious visitor bites her breast. When she cries out, the visitor slips away. The housekeepers seemingly believe her story, but her father tells her it was a dream, but she knows it was not.
• Chapter 2, "A Guest," p.10
• The narrator is expecting a guest, but she learns from her father that the young girl has died. This disappointment is quickly relieved when they receive an unexpected guest:
• A carriage crashes near the castle. Inside of the carriage is a woman and her now injured daugther. The mother is on an urgent mission and is afraid she will have to leave her daughter at the nearest village and continue on her journey without her daughter. The narrator's father offers to care for the girl until the mother can return in 3 months.
• The woman accepts this offer, but not before pulling her father aside and saying something secretly to him in a stern manner.
• Chapter 3, "We Compare Notes," p.19
• Her father relays to her what the woman told him in private. That she was on a journey of vital importance. That she will return in 3 months. That the girl will remain silent on who they are, where they came from, and where they were going.
• When the narrator finally goes to see the girl in her bed, she immediately realizes the girl is who snuck into her bed and bit her. But then we get a twist. The girl tells her that she recognizes our narrator from a dream she had when she was a child. The narrator then tells the girl that she also saw her 12 years ago. So the girl recounts her story, and it's the same as the narrator's. She does not have the perspective of the narrator being bit, but only that she awoke when the narrator cried out. Then she slipped away, and then she woke up from her dream.
• The narrator thinks the girl is the most beautiful creature she has even seen.
• Chapter 4, "Her Habits--A Saunter," p.27
• The narrator only learns 3 things about the girl. Her name is Carmilla; her family is ancient and noble; and her home is to the west. She remains secretive about everything else, as promised by her mother.
• The narrator would try to resist her, but the girl would embrace her, kiss her on the cheek, and whisper in her ear, soothing the narrator like a lullaby and soothing her into a trance that would only lift when she let go.
• The girl holds the narrator's hand. She feels like a lover and it embarrases the narrator. She tells the narrator, "You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one forever."
• A young girl dies, and when her funeral procession goes past the castle, Carmilla is annoyed with the fuss.
• A salesman of charms visits the castle and sells the two girls amulets to protect them from vampires. The salesman suggests it is vampires that are killing the young girls.
• The salesman offends Carmilla when he offers to fix her sharp teeth.
• The narrator overhears her father and a doctor talking: "Nevertheless life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either."
• Chapter 5, "A Wonderful Likeness," p.38
• An artist visits the castle to clean their artwork. When he cleans a picture depicting Mircalla, Countess Karnstein from 1698, the narrator notices it looks exactly like Carmilla. Carmilla identifies that she is a descendant of the Karnseins.
• The narrator wonders if there is romance in Carmilla's secretive past, but Carmilla responds:
• "I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you."
• Also Carmilla to the narrator: "I live in you; and you would die for me, I love you so."
• After the narrator recoils, Carmilla looks ill. The narrator wants to summon her father, but Carmilla assure her the she is just languid.
• Chapter 6, "A Very Strange Agony," p.43
• Carmilla considers leaving and pursuing her mother on her own. The narrator's father convinces her to stay.
• Carmilla tells the narrator about attending a ball many years ago. The night of the ball, she was wounded in her bed on her breast -- the same as the narrator. She was near dying, it was "a cruel love," a "strange love": "Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood."
• The narrator has a dream. A black cat approaches, and once again she is stung by two needles on her breast. She wakes to see a female figure. The figure slips out the door. The narrator checks -- the door was locked.
• Chapter 7, "Descending," p.48
• The narrator tells her governesses her story but not her father. A governess explains it is haunted outside Carmilla's window. There are reports of a woman walking there at night. The narrator tells them not to tell Carmilla as to not scare her.
• Carmilla tells them she was attacked at night by some black creature, and she was only saved by her amulet. The narrator shares her story from the previous night.
• The narrator sleeps fine, but she has dreams of a woman kissing her. After three weeks, she has grown pale and languished.
• Carmilla also reports dreams.
• The narrator wakes up to find Carmilla drenched in blood from chin to feet. She cries for help, and when her governesses arive, she tells her story. They go to Carmilla's room. She is missing.
• Chapter 8, "Search," p.55
• They search the castle, unable to find her, but at 1pm, the narrator finds Carmilla in Carmilla's room. When asked, Carmilla responds she fell asleep and woke up in her room to find the door busted in.
• The narrator's father deduces that Carmilla had sleep walked.
• Chapter 9, "The Doctor," p.59
• The narrator's daughter sends for a doctor without telling her.
• The doctor has a grave face and asks to speak to the narrator's father alone.
• Her father is not open with his daughter anymore.
• Her father tells her they must travel to Karnstein.
• As they depart for Karnstein, they meet General Speildorf who was headed their way. He joins them on their journey.
• Chapter 10, "Bereaved," p.65
• The General reveals he wants to kill monsters at Karnstein.
• Chapter 11, "The Story," p.69
• The General recounts his story of how he met Millarca, who was put under his care.
• At a masked ball, a mysterious woman knows details from the General's past, but he does not know who is behind the mask.
• Chapter 12, "A Petition," p.74
• She asks him to care for her daughter.
• Millarca goes missing, but she eventually turns up, having allegedley fallen into a deep sleep in the house.
• Chapter 13, "The Wood-Man," p.79
• Millarca and the General's ward experience languor.
• The narrator's father has not caught on, but the General has. The narrator's father tells the General they have a painting of Mircalla, but the General says he thinks he has seen the original.
• At Karnstein, they meet a woodman who recounts a story of a Morivian nobleman who came to hunt vampires.
• Chapter 14, "The Meeting," p.84
• We learn the end of the General's story. He hides himself in a closet and waits for the vampire to attack his ward. He discovers the vampire is Millarca.
• Carmilla enters the chapel. When the General sees her, he swings the woodman's axe at her. She transforms into a monster and repels the attack.
• The General identifies Carmilla as Millarca.
• Chapter 15, "Ordeal and Execution," p.89
• They open Mircalla's grave, and the 150 year old corpse is not a corpse at all, but seemingly a woman full of life floating in blood.
• They put a stake through her heart, behead her, and burn her corpse.
• Chapter 16, "Conclusion," p.93
• to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to memory with ambiguous alternations--sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl; sometimes the writhing fiend I saw in the ruined church; and often from a reverie I started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door.