Carmilla (Clockwork Editions) Paperback – Illustrated, November 26, 2019

It seems many editions of this novel are from random publishers taking advantage of its open domain, so it’s nice to have this version—nice cover and art inside the book.

the pictures throughout are beautiful and the story is captivating. its easy to read in one sitting

The story itself is fantastic, however the footnotes add nothing except spoilers and unnecessary interjections like ‘it’s not strangulation it’s pleasuring’ or some such nonsense. Let me infer if I want to infer. I disliked the footnotes taking me out of the story with the opinions of the editor. Even the locations weren’t really necessary to be elaborated on. I did appreciate knowing about Styria and Monrovia but the editor lost all my good faith by the spoilers which were either in the intro or the footnotes and how the editor decided it would be clever retribution against the author to insinuate original material for the story that could have deepened everything which she felt was better to be withheld for some reason which ultimately punished the readers? The edition is beautiful, but the footnotes and intro were unnecessary and detracted in my opinion. The story, however, is exquisite. I do believe you can find this book for free on the Gutenberg project or if you just search it on google, if you aren’t interested in hearing someone put in the footnotes how they think the sky looks like blood etc. But, for all the ragging on it... if you like owning hard copy, this is admittedly a beautiful little book, from the binding to the illustrations and worth having. I would definitely buy it again and love the story and aesthetic. One of the other editions might be better though if you hate spoilers. Juuuust not digging the added material, which seems to refuse to provide us with more than its own opinions.Edit: having viewed some other hard copy editions of this story I would like to alter my opinion of this edition somewhat. This edition is far better laid out and more enjoyable to read than some of the other editions. It is clean and beautiful and the illustrations are fantastic. I wanted to clarify too, this is worth buying! Just avoid the introduction by the editor and the footnotes until after you’ve read it. The footnotes are sparse and unobtrusive if you choose to ignore them.

The editor gives you great context for the book, and sets the mystery of the original story.

The book felt like it was very slow paced and then rushed at times. There were only a few annotations by the author, but I felt like they were useless to be honest. Overall it was quite a disappointing read.

Especially if you are into scary stories...this classic vampire tale is a perfect read before you go to bed. Except that you may not get to bed, wanting to read "just one more chapter!"I thought it was especially interesting how freely LeFanu could write about intimate female friendship...in the 1800's! I can understand the recent resurgence of interest in the horror genre. Read this...but with a good friend, it may be your best chance to get a good night's sleep, and maybe more!

The illustrations inside are to die for. I love this book. Also the book was edited by a poc lesbian so all the original homophobia was edited out. Do yourself a favor and get this book! Happy pride month!