Carmilla

The novella that inspired Bram Stoker to create Dracula.

As the result of a nearby carriage accident, Laura and her father are persuaded to allow the apparently injured Carmilla to stay in their home for some months while recovering. At the same time, local peasant girls have been mysteriously dying, and Laura has been having intense nightmares which seem to correspond with her quickly degenerating health. Fearing for his daughter's life, Laura's father enlists help and sets out on a quest to 'cure' Laura of her affliction.

Le Fanu's novella created a standard for vampire and gothic mystery fiction and served as inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was published twenty-five years later.