Carmilla is an Gothic novella by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction , predating Bram Stoker 's Dracula by 26 years. First published as a serial in The Dark Blue —72 , [1] [2] the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla. The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire , expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist. The novella notably never acknowledges homosexuality as an antagonistic trait, leaving it subtle and relatively unmentioned.