First of all, if you choose to read this (and I think you should), I must insist you read the version edited by Carmen Maria Machado. And don’t skip the introduction! It provides the necessary insight to understand the significance of the text. I found this to be a very accessible classic. It’s eerie, mysterious, and gothic and if you like literary vampires at all, it’s a must read. This story wasn't quite Le Fanu’s own, and In the words of CMM: “Once Veronika’s excised letters are restored to the record, the dimensions of the story become clearer; a young woman’s sexual awakening;

the senseless slaughter of her supposed defiler.

The ecclesiastics and doctors and fathers and uncles and barons and vampire hunters look less like well-intentioned protectors against a supernatural evil; their own accounts become highly suspect.”