“You will think me cruel, very selfish, but love is always selfish; the more ardent the more selfish. How jealous I am you cannot know. You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me, and hating me through death and after. There is no such word as indifference in my apathetic nature.”
― Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla
Carmilla was published in 1871 by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu more than 20 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story is told from Laura’s point of view, as she unravels the mystery of her visitor Carmilla who appeared to her in dreams as a child. You can find out more at Victorian Gothic, read the tale yourself at Project Gutenberg, or listen at LibriVox.