ren’s Reviews > Carmilla > Status Update

"'I have been a woodsman here,' he answered in his patois, 'all my days. So was my father before me, and so on, as many generations as I can count. I could show you the very house in the village in which my ancestors lived."

"It was a bad family, and here it's bloodstained annals were written. It is hard that they should, after death, continue to plague the human race with their atrocious lusts."

"... Lastly came the sensations. One, not unpleasant but very peculiar, she said, resembled the flow of an icy stream against her breast. At a later time, she felt something like a pair of large needles pierce her painfully, a little below the throat. A few nights after there followed a gradual and convulsive sense of strangulation; then came unconsciousness."

"She was at first visited by appalling dreams; then, as she fancied, by a specter, sometimes resembling Millarca, sometimes in the shape of a beast, indistinctly seen, walking round the foot of her bed..."

"The ball was not over until the morning sun had almost reached the horizon. It pleased the Grand Duke to dance until then, so loyal people could not go away or even think of bed.
We had just made our way through a crowded parlor when my ward asked me what had become of Millarca. I thought she had been by her side, and she fancied she was by mine. The fact was, we had lost her."

"'She is gone,' said Millarca with a sigh.
'She is gone,' I repeated to myself, reflecting for the first time--in the hurried moments that had elapsed since my consent--upon the folly of my act.
'She did not look up,' said the young lady, plaintively.
'The countess had taken off her mask, perhaps, and did not care to show her face,' I said; 'she could not know that you were in the window.'"

"But just now, a piece of news has reached me like a thunderbolt. I must set out and travel by a devious route, nearly a hundred miles, with all the speed I can possibly muster. My perplexities multiply."

"He looked particularly elegant and distinguished, with this drawback: His face was the deadliest pale I ever saw, except in death."

"'You have no mask to remove. You can offer me nothing in exchange.'
'My petition is to your pity, to remove it.'
'And mine to yours, to let it stay where it is,' she replied.
'Well, then, at least you will tell me whether you are French or German; you speak both languages so perfectly.'
'I don't think I shall tell you that, general: you intend a surprise and are meditating the particular point of attack.'"

"'You have puzzled me utterly, I said, laughing. 'Is that not enough? Won't you, now, consent to stand on equal terms and do me the kindness to remove your mask?'
'Can any request be more unreasonable?' she replied. 'Ask a lady to yield an advantage! Besides, how do you know you should recognize me? Years make changes.'
'As you see,' I said, with a bow and a melancholy little laugh."