Carmilla

Review by Paul Fiander
Written by: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Narrated by: Phoebe Fox, Rose Leslie, David Tennant, David Horovitch, James Wilby, Susan Wooldridge, Hannah Genesius
Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins 
Publisher: Audible Ltd. 
Through the ages vampires have come in many forms from the fear inducing Dracula to the sparkly Edward, to the Strain’s more modern take in the Master. Each new autumn has something unique but for me the Victorian tales have always been the best. Stokers use of vampirism as a treatise on syphilis has pretty much ingrained the relationship between sex and the Nosferatu but he was not the first to interweave the two subjects.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu released Carmilla in a serialised format in 1871/72 and is a relatively short story, the performance is around 2 hours and twenty minutes long. I say “performance as this audiobook was created by a rather stellar ensemble cast and feels very much akin to a radio play. The narrative plays out in the first person and we have shifting narrators throughout the story though Laura played by Rose Leslie of Downton Abbey and (more importantly for some) Game of Thrones. Her accent as you would expect is Victorian English to the point of perfection and this level of narration is the same throughout the cast. Although David Tennant’s Dr Hesselius at times can feel a little over played. He is the only person who speaks with a non-English accent. The book is set in Styria (Austria) but there is a strong English influence throughout the central characters and so the accents are in order for the narrative.
The sexual element of this book plays out between Laura and Carmilla (played by Phoebe Fox), it may come as a bit of a shock that a Victorian book would have Lesbian overtones but this is by no means the only title out there. The relationship between the two feels authentic although as a reader you will be trying to shout sense into Laura throughout the tale.

The shortness of the book as I eluded to earlier is rather less than my usual consumption from Audible. In this case though the book does not really waste any time getting down to the story and makes short work of any conflict. I will understand anyone who prefers to have a longer sitting with their Audiobooks but at times quality is more important and Carmilla certainly fits that bill.

Overall this change from straight narration to more of a dramatic performance is a nice change. The narrative fitted the many voices and at no time did any of the performances let down the rest. If this is a direction Audible will be pursuing then I will happily follow along.