Lyra's Classics
Presents
Carmilla
A Novella, by
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Published In A Hand-Bound Limited Edition From
Lyra's Books
Publishing
“Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood”
Carmilla, a novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, is a cornerstone of Gothic and vampire literature. Originally serialized in the magazine The Dark Blue from 1871 to 1872, it was later included in Le Fanu’s 1872 collection, In a Glass Darkly. Our text was proofread from a copy of the latter edition in the British Library. Renowned for its atmospheric storytelling, Carmilla explores themes of female sexuality, supernatural terror, and forbidden desire. Predating Bram Stoker’s Dracula by twenty-five years, it profoundly shaped modern vampire fiction and served as a key influence on Stoker’s iconic novel. Le Fanu’s haunting and pioneering narrative remains celebrated as a seminal work in the genre.
This edition is uniquely illustrated with fourteen colour artworks by Hugo Award winning artist, Abigail Larson. All copies are signed by the artist.
The text pages are printed letterpress. The illustrations are printed digitally and tipped in individually as plates, by hand, onto different coloured paper stock. The text is printed by Phil Abel at Hand and Eye, using photopolymer plates on his Heidelberg cylinder press.
Our edition contains a newly commissioned afterword by Professor Roger Luckhurst who will also be signing all copies.
As always, all copies are hand bound at our bindery in Ludlow using the finest materials available.
Author
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was an influential Irish writer, best known for his work in the genre of supernatural fiction. Born in Dublin, Le Fanu was the son of a Protestant clergyman. He studied law at Trinity College but never practiced, choosing instead to pursue a career in journalism and writing.
Le Fanu's literary career began with short stories and poetry, but he soon found his niche in Gothic and supernatural fiction. His works are known for their atmospheric tension, intricate plots, and psychological depth. Among his most famous stories are "Carmilla" (1872) and "Uncle Silas" (1864), another classic, blending mystery with Gothic horror.
Throughout his life, Le Fanu was a reclusive figure, particularly after the death of his wife in 1858. He withdrew from public life, focusing on his writing and editing the Dublin University Magazine, where many of his works were first published.
Artist
Abigail Larson
Abigail Larson is an American illustrator based in Italy, renowned for her mixed-media artworks in the dark fantasy genre. With her hauntingly beautiful style, she has garnered a large and dedicated fan base. Working primarily with pencil, ink, watercolour, and digital, Abigail creates distinctive illustrations inspired by fairy tales, folklore, and ghost stories.
Her work has been featured by major publishing and production companies, including DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Netflix Animation, and Disney Books. In 2016, she won the coveted Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.
Afterword
Roger Luckhurst
Professor Roger Luckhurst is the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth Century Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, where he has worked for over 30 years, and was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Columbia University in 2016. He works on Victorian literature, contemporary literature, Gothic and weird fiction, trauma studies, and speculative/science fiction.
He has published several books in the field of science fiction and Gothic studies, including Gothic: An Illustrated History (Thames and Hudson), an edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula for Oxford World’s Classics, and acted as editor for The Cambridge Companion to Dracula.
Design Notes
Design Notes
Marcelo Anciano
Some of the books that Rich and I do are long, exhausting and constantly changing. Rich said that he would like to do Carmilla a couple of years ago, and asked if I knew the work of Abigail Larson, whose rich, colourful images are particularly distinctive. It felt like the perfect match.
As we usually do, we work from the initial visual ideas that the artist would like to explore, and then I work out an internal rhythm for the plates and suggest other images that would give us a narrative flow that can, cinematically, tell the story.
Carmilla has an awful lot of inferred sexuality, and Abigail grasped that completely. I think I suggested only one change and two additional images. It was one of the smoothest books I have done; Abigail’s images have an undeniable sensuality that really needed no direction whatsoever. It really was a smooth dream project.
Often, for me, the book starts with the right typeface for the titles. Something that complements both the story and the artist’s imagery. As soon as I used Open Kapitalen, designed by Jan van Krimpen almost a hundred years ago, the book actually started to design itself, and all I had to do was make sure that the reading experience flowed with Abigail’s plates.
Rich and I decided early on that we were going to isolate her plates as tipped-in illustrations, using a different paper stock. This would give a sense of preciousness to the rich colours that she was using. And then Rich’s ideas for the bindings, after his usual dozens of rejected design ideas, took shape and further complemented the lush, classic feel of the interiors. By then, it was clear that we had something that felt completely at home within Lyra’s Classics.
Design Notes
Richard Tong
When I first began thinking about the designs for Carmilla, I knew that I wanted the bindings to sit comfortably within the world of fine press books while also reflecting the particular atmosphere of Abigail Larson’s illustrations.
This was a really enjoyable project to design because Abigail’s work gave me so much to respond to. Her illustrations are dark and romantic, and they are absolutely dripping in rich colour. I tried to take some of the visual ideas and atmosphere running through the illustrations and carry them into the physical design of the books using various binding techniques.
For me, one of the most memorable scenes in the story is the discovery of Carmilla’s tomb. It is a moment that combines so many of the ideas I wanted to explore throughout the design: stone, darkness, blood, texture, and the revelation of what lies beneath.
The boxes for both editions are intended to represent Carmilla’s tombstone. They are both covered in a remarkable stone effect material which not only looks like stone but actually feels surprisingly similar to it. This gives the editions a particularly tactile quality and creates a deliberate contrast with the books inside. Carmilla’s name is foil blocked onto the front of the boxes so that, visually, they become the tombstone itself. Opening the box (or pulling the book from the box, depending on which edition you have) is intended to suggest entering the tomb.
The boards of the Numbered edition binding are covered with deep red and black paste papers by Victoria Hall. The colours and pattern were designed to evoke the blood-filled coffin discovered within Carmilla’s tomb, while also reflecting the dark palette that runs throughout Abigail’s artwork. It is also suggestive of the lush drapery which features in many of the artworks. And the shape of the quarter binding? A coffin? Why not?! It’s about as close to gimmicky design as I like to get, but it’s undeniably satisfying to tweak traditional shapes and structures to create something a little different.
The Lettered edition takes the idea of texture and colour even further. This time, the binding is fully covered in a specially treated red and black goatskin. The top layer of dye is deglazed and embossed to create a surface that, while incredibly smooth, is visually very textured. This gives the binding an appearance that is both rich and slightly unsettling.
Both editions have elements bound in black leather that feature a network of cracks across the covers, created using foil blocking. This appears on the Numbered edition as the ‘coffin’ quarter binding, and on the Lettered edition on the bradel bound solander box. These cracks were directly inspired by the stonework in Abigail’s illustrations of Carmilla’s tomb. Rather than simply adding a decorative pattern to the leather, I wanted the books themselves to feel as though they had been taken from that setting. It’s also kind of fun to think of it as a reflection of the crumbling, decaying quality of an ancient evil!
The stone effect boards are rough and heavily textured, while the leather, papers and cloths are smooth to the touch. I wanted these opposing qualities to reflect the duality within Carmilla herself: the beautiful and seductive persona she presents to Laura, and the darker, more sinister nature that lies beneath. They also reflect the contrasts between Carmilla and Laura themselves: the human and the supernatural, innocence and experience, victim and predator.
Red and black were clearly the colours for Carmilla. They have long been associated with Gothic fiction and vampire stories, but they also work particularly well with Abigail’s colour palette. Throughout the design, I have tried to use red sparingly but deliberately, allowing the black leather and stone materials to dominate while the red appears as something discovered beneath the surface.
This has been a real treat of a project to work on. Abigail’s artwork is beautiful and, I think, perfectly suited to Carmilla. I have been very pleased to have had the opportunity to create bindings that respond to and sit well alongside the illustrations, while still retaining the character of fine press editions.
