05-19-2012, 09:41 PM
Oh, it's been one of my favorite vampire stories for ages! I think it's so filmic--it would make such a lush and gorgeous movie. That nighttime carriage ride, with the horses' hooves striking sparks and the "round astonished face" of the moon rolling along the horizon... My doctoral dissertation was on 19th-century vampire literature, and I wrote about the celestial way Clarimonde is portrayed, as if she is an angel and Serapion, the priest, is almost demonic. It's such an intriguing reversal from the usual way female vampires were portrayed in that century.