"Carmilla" by Sheridan Le Fanu is a short vampire story that predates even Bram Stoker's "Dracula," and in many ways, I thought it the scarier of the two. The Count was unsettling from the moment you met him, but Carmilla has what you discover is an insidiously disarming charm.
As a vampire, Carmilla is just as seductive and alluring as Dracula, but unlike him, she doesn't seem to be trying to attract the opposite sex but other women. In today's day and age, so what? But Sheridan Le Fanu lived in the 1800s, so I bet even implied lesbianism got some of his audience's knickers in a twist.
I also appreciated how much more focused "Carmilla" is, as a story, when compared to "Dracula." Full disclosure, though, this might just be a product of its brevity.
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