THE LADY OF THE HOUSE OF LOVE
[SHORT-STORY]
A SHORT HISTORY OF GOTHIC (RADIO 7, LONDON—BBC)
[Saturday—6:30-7:00 PM]
December 26, 2009 “The Lady of the House of Love”
[RADIO 4 EXTRA: “…A vampire tale with a twist. On the eve of war, an
unwary army officer meets the last of the Nosferatu family…”]
PERSONNEL: Indira Varma (reader).
EXTANT RECORDING
BOOK AT BEDTIME—“A NIGHT WITH A VAMPIRE 2” (RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)
[Monday—10:45-11:00 PM]
November 28, 2011 “The Lady of the House of Love”
[BBC RADIO 4: “…This wonderful retake on the Sleeping Beauty story first
appeared in [Angela] Carter’s 1979 volume ‘The Bloody Chamber.’ A
virginal English soldier, travelling through Romania by bicycle, finds
himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a
vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and
feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity
and virginity have a curious effect on her…”]
[OG-NOTE: Carter based the story on her 1976 BBC Radio 3 play, “Vampirella.”]
EMPTY YOUR HEART OF ITS MORTAL
DREAM
PAUL CHARLES SMITH
The story The Lady of the House of Love was adapted from a radio play written by Carter for BBC
Radio 3 in 1976, and as a result isn’t a direct reimaging of any particular fairy tale, but it does
invoke ideas from Sleeping Beauty, Jack in the Beanstalk, and vampire folklore. It is about a
vampire Countess, the orphaned daughter of Nosferatu who lives in an abandoned village in
Romania in her castle, dressed in her dead mother’s wedding dress with only a caged bird for
company. She repeatedly draws cards from the tarot deck and the result is always the same:
wisdom, dissolution, and then death, and even though she tries to interpret them in different
ways it always amounts to the same. One day a young English soldier arrives in the town on
bicycle, exploring Europe before he has to report to the barracks, and on that day the tarot shows
her a card symbolising the hand of love and death. The Countess has survived thus far by
seducing men who came to the village, and when the soldier arrives in her castle she begins the
same game with him, “Suivez-moi. Je vous attendais. Vouz serez ma proie.” The solider is
inexperienced, but he is not afraid of the Countess because he does not believe in vampires. She
represents the old Europe, and he is the face of the new changing Europe where the supernatural
is replaced by the rational. She leads him into the bedroom where she intends to feed on him, but
she cuts herself on glass and while she is deep in thought looking at her blood, the solider kisses
her wound. The solider wakes in the morning to find her slumped at the table where she does her
readings dead with a single rose. He loves the village behind him on his bicycle, but takes the rose
where back at the barracks he places it in water to bring it back to life and succeeds, but there is
still something unholy about it despite its majesty. The next day after this he is sent to France to
fight in the Great War. As mentioned earlier, one of the main themes seems to be the new way of
Europe is the conquering of the old ways with reason, although ironically this leads to war. For a
story about seduction, the Countess seems rather desexualised and while the soldier is the virgin
she is uncomfortable doing something she should be experienced at. In a subversion of Sleeping
Beauty, instead of life the kiss brings death, although it is still compassion that provides the
female protagonist with her freedom.
[LAFCADIO HEARN STORIES]
AUTHOR’S PLAYHOUSE (WMAQ, CHICAGO)
[Sunday—10:30-11:00 PM]
January 25, 1942 “The Soul of the Great Bell”
[Wednesday—11:15-11:45 PM]
November 4, 1942 “The Soul of the Great Bell”
AUTHOR’S PLAYHOUSE (WMAQ, CHICAGO)
[Friday—11:30 PM-12:00 MIDNIGHT)
September 1, 1944 “The Soul of the Great Bell”
RADIO CITY PLAYHOUSE (
[Monday—
March 7, 1949 “A Passion in the Desert” / “Some Chinese Ghosts”
[WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL: “… ‘A Passion in the Desert,’ Balzac, and
‘Some Chinese Ghosts,’ Hearn…”]