Vampire fiction

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For information on movies about vampires, see Vampire films.

Vampire fiction covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The best known work in this genre is, of course, Bram Stoker's gothic novel Dracula. It was not, however, the first. The literary vampire first appeared in poetry rather than prose.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Eighteenth Century

Vampire fiction is rooted in the 'vampire craze' of the 1720's and 1730's, which culminated in the somewhat bizarre official exhumations of suspected vampires Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole in Serbia under the Habsburg Monarchy. One of the first works of art to touch upon the subject is the short German poem The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, where the theme already has strong erotic overtones: a man whose love is rejected by a respectable and pious maiden threatens to pay her a nightly visit, drink her blood by giving her the seductive kiss of the vampire and thus prove her that his teaching is better than her mother's Christianity. Furthermore, there have been a number of tales about a dead person returning from the grave to visit his/her beloved or spouse and bring them death in one day or another, the narrative poem Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger being a notable 18th century example. One of its lines Denn die Toten reiten schnell ("For the dead travel fast") was to be quoted in Bram Stoker's classic Dracula. A later German poem exploring the same subject with a prominent vampiric element was The Bride of Corinth (1797) by Goethe, a story about a young woman who returns from the grave to seek her betrothed:

From my grave to wander I am forced
Still to seek the God's long server'd link,
Still to love the bridegroom I have lost,
And the lifeblood of his heart to drink.

The story is turned into an expression of the conflict between Heathendom and Christianity: the family of the dead girl are Christians, while the young man and his relatives are still pagans. It turns out that it was the girl's Christian mother who broke off her engagement and forced her to become a nun, eventually driving her to death. The motive behind the girl's return as a "spectre" is that "e'en Earth can never cool down love". Goethe had been inspired by the story of Philinnion by Phlegon of Tralles, a tale from classical Greece. However, in that tale, the youth is not the girl's betrothed, no religious conflict is present, no actual sucking of blood occurs, and the girl's return from the dead is said to be sanctioned by the gods of the Underworld. She relapses into death upon being exposed, and the issue is settled by burning her body outside of the city walls and making an apotropaic sacrifice to the deities involved.

The first mention of vampires in English literature appears in Robert Southey's monumental oriental epic poem Thalaba the Destroyer (1797), where the main character Thalaba's deceased beloved Oneiza turns into a vampire, although that occurrence is actually marginal to the story. It has been argued (Leatherdale 1993: 46-9) that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel (written between 1797 and 1801, but not published until 1816) has influenced the development of vampire fiction: the heroine Christabel is seduced by a female supernatural being called Geraldine who tricks her way into her residence and eventually tries to marry her after having assumed the appearance of an old beloved of hers. The story bears a remarkable resemblance to the overtly vampiric story of Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872).

[edit] Nineteenth Century

In a passage in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), Lord Byron alludes to the traditional folkloric conception of the vampire as a being damned to suck the blood and destroy the life of its nearest relations:

Lord Byron in Albanian Costume, painted by Thomas Phillips in 1813
Lord Byron in Albanian Costume, painted by Thomas Phillips in 1813
But first, on earth as vampire sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse:
Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.

Byron also composed an enigmatic fragmentary story concerning the mysterious fate of an aristocrat named Augustus Darvell whilst journeying in the Orient - as his contribution to the famous ghost story competition at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in 1816, between him, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John William Polidori (who was Byron's personal physician). This story provided the basis for the The Vampyre (1819) by Polidori. This short story was the first example of the vampire in prose fiction. Byron's own wild life became the model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. Polidori's Lord Ruthven seems to be the first appearance of the modern vampire: an undead, vampiric being possessing a developed intellect and preternatural charm, as well as physical attraction. By contrast, the vampire of folklore was almost invariably thought of as a hideous, unappealing creature.

An unauthorized sequel to Polidori's tale by Cyprien Bérard called Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires (1820) was adapted by Charles Nodier into the first vampire stage melodrama, which was in turn made into an opera by German composer Heinrich Marschner. Alexandre Dumas, père later redramatized the story in a play also entitled Le Vampire (1851).

An important later example of 19th century Vampire fiction is the penny dreadful epic Varney the Vampire (1847) featuring Sir Francis Varney as the Vampire. In this story we have the first example of the standard trope in which the vampire comes through the window at night and attacks a maiden as she lies sleeping.

Another famous vampire of this period is Sir Alan Raby who is the lead character of The Vampire (1852), a play by Dion Boucicault.

Fascinating erotic fixations are evident in Sheridan le Fanu's classic novella Carmilla (1872) which features a female vampire with lesbian inclinations who seduces the heroine Laura whilst draining her of her vital fluids. Le Fanu's story is set in the Duchy of Styria. Such central European locations became a standard feature of vampire fiction.

Another important example of the development of vampire fiction can be found in three seminal novels by Paul Féval: Le Chevalier Ténèbre (1860), La Vampire (1865) and La Ville Vampire (1874).

[edit] Dracula

Filmgoers met Dracula (Bela Lugosi) in 1931 in a landmark vampire film.
Filmgoers met Dracula (Bela Lugosi) in 1931 in a landmark vampire film.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) has been the definitive description of the vampire in popular fiction for the last century. Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease (contagious demonic possession), with its undertones of sex, blood, and death, struck a chord in a Victorian Britain where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. A decade before in 1888, the press had sensationalized Jack the Ripper's sexualized murders of prostitutes during his reign of terror in East London.

The name Count Dracula was inspired by a real person, Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler). Ţepeş was a notorious Wallachian (Romanian) prince of the 15th century, also known by as Vlad III Dracula. Unlike the historical personage, however, Stoker located his Count Dracula in a castle near the Borgo Pass in Transylvania, and ascribed to that area the supernatural aura it retains to this day in the popular imagination.

Stoker likely drew inspiration from Irish myths of blood-sucking creatures. He was also influenced by a contemporary vampire story, Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu. Le Fanu was Stoker's editor when Stoker was a theatre critic in Dublin, Ireland. Like Le Fanu, Stoker created compelling female vampire characters such as Lucy Westenra and the Brides of Dracula.

[edit] Twentieth Century

Most 20th-century vampire fiction draws heavily on Stoker's work. Early films such as Nosferatu and those featuring Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee are examples of this. Nosferatu, in fact, was so clearly based on Dracula that Stoker's widow sued for copyright infringement and won. As a result of the suit, most prints of the film were destroyed. She later allowed the film to be shown in the U.K.

Though most later works of vampire fiction do not feature Dracula as a character, there are typically clear thematic ties. These include the association of the vampire with great wealth and erotic power, as well as frequent use of Gothic settings and iconography.

Prior to the mid-1950s, vampires were usually presented as supernatural beings with mystical powers. Discussion of the transmission of vampirism was sketchy at best. This changed with the publication of I Am Legend by author Richard Matheson in (1954). The story of a future Los Angeles, overrun with undead cannibalistic/bloodsucking beings changed the genre forever. One man is the sole survivor of a pandemic of a bacterium that causes vampirism. He must fight to survive attacks from the hordes of nocturnal creatures, discover the secrets of their biology, and develop effective countermeasures. This was the first piece of fiction with an analytical slant towards vampires.

Since the 1970s, many American children have been introduced to the concept of vampires by Count von Count, a loveable muppet on the educational children's series Sesame Street. The Count, as he is more commonly known, helps young children practice their numbers concepts by counting things around him with a stereotypical eastern European accent. Although the Count is never portrayed carrying out acts of mayhem typical to vampires or even drinking blood, he does possess a prominent widow's peak and fangs and so is presumably a vampire.

The 1981 novel and 1983 film The Hunger examined the biology of vampires, suggesting that their special abilities were the result of physical properties of their blood. The novel suggested that all vampires were not undead humans, but some were a separate species that had evolved alongside humans.

The Vampire Chronicles series of novels by Anne Rice are the most popular in a genre of modern stories that use vampires as sympathetic protagonists rather than monsters or villains.

In 2006 a new UK author Raven Dane published Blood Tears the first in her Legacy of the Dark Kind Series The second novel Blood Lament was published March 2007 with the third Blood Alliance due in 2008. These are vampire books with a difference; the Dark Kind were created for a specific purpose and have their own code of honour. Worth reading. The UK's version of Anne Rice?

[edit] Traits of vampires in fiction

The traits of the literary vampire have evolved from the often repulsive figures of folklore. Fictional vampires can be romantic figures, often described as elegant and sexy (compare demons such as succubus and incubus). This is in stark contrast to the vampire of Eastern European folklore, which was a horrifying animated corpse.

According to literary scholar Nina Auerbach in Our Vampires Ourselves, the influence of the moon was seen as dominant in the earliest examples of vampire literature: "For at least fifty years after Planche's Vampire, the moon was the central ingredient of vampire iconography; vampire's solitary and repetitive lives consisted of incessant deaths and - when the moon shone down on them - quivering rebirths. Ruthven, Varney and Raby need marriage and blood to replenish their vitality but they turn for renewed life to the moon...a corpse quivering to life under the moon's rays is the central image of midcentury vampire literature; fangs, penetration, sucking and staking are all peripheral to its lunar obsession."

Later, Bram Stoker's Dracula, was hugely influential in its depiction of vampire traits. However despite the novel's important contributions to vampire fiction, several popular traits of fictional vampires are absent. Count Dracula is killed by a bowie knife, not a wooden stake. The destruction of the vampire Lucy is a three-part process (staking, decapitation, and garlic in the mouth), not the simple stake-only procedure often found in later vampire stories. Dracula has the ability to travel as a mist and to scale the external walls of his castle. One very famous trait Stoker added is the inability to be seen in mirrors, which is not found in traditional Eastern European folklore.

It is also notable in the novel that Dracula can walk about in the daylight, in bright sunshine, though apparently without the ability to use most of his powers, like turning into mist or a bat. He is still strong and fast enough to struggle with and escape from most of his male pursuers, in a scene in the book. Traditional vampire folklore does not usually hold that sunlight is fatal to vampires, though they are nocturnal. It is only with the film Nosferatu that daylight is first depicted as deadly to vampires.

A well-known set of special "powers" and weaknesses is commonly associated with vampires in contemporary fiction:

  • Vampires, being already dead, do not need human sustenance such as food, water, or even oxygen. They are sometimes portrayed as being unable to eat human food at all, forcing them to either avoid public dining or mime chewing and eating to deceive their mortal victims. They often have a pale appearance (not the dark or ruddy skin of folkloric vampires), and their skin is cool to the touch.
  • Fictional vampires are sometimes considered to be shape-shifters, with the ability to transform themselves into animals such as bats, rodents, and wolves. Some vampires are even described as being able to change into fog or mist.
  • Some vampires can fly. This power may be supernatural levitation, or it may be connected to the vampire's shape-shifting ability.
  • Vampires cast no shadow and have no reflection. In modern fiction, this may extend to the idea that vampires cannot be photographed. This concept originated with Stoker, who derived it from the idea that mirrors portray one's soul--something that most vampires lack.
  • Some traditions hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless he or she is invited in. Generally, a vampire needs be invited in only once and can then come and go at will.
  • Some tales maintain that vampires must return to a coffin or to their "native soil" before sunrise to take their rest safely. Others place native soil in their coffins, especially if they have relocated. Still other vampire stories such as Le Fanu's Carmilla maintain that vampires must return to their coffins, but sleep in several inches of blood as opposed to soil.
  • Werewolves are sometimes held to become vampires after death. Other fiction, however, argues werewolves are servants, underlings, or mortal enemies, and equals of vampires.
  • As in folklore, the vampire of fiction can usually be warded off with garlic and symbols of Christian faith such as holy water, the crucifix, or a rosary). Some stories have extended this power to all religious icons, any object through which faith is channelled, or religious icons that are significant to the vampire itself. For instance, a formerly Jewish vampire might recoil from the Star of David.
  • A vampire may be destroyed by a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, drowning, or incineration. Older folklore states a vampire's head must be removed from its body, the mouth stuffed with garlic and holy water or relics, the body drawn and quartered, then burned and spread into the four winds, with the head buried on hallowed ground. Though only recently surfacing in modern day popular culture (i.e., the 1969 film Count Dracula, Blade, Dracula 2000, etc.) vampires have no weaknesses to silver, iron or any unconsecrated metal. However, one of the most common means for killing the fictional vampire is exposure to daylight. This idea seems to have originated with the 1922 film Nosferatu, but vulnerability to sunlight has become popularly accepted as a standard vampire weakness. Still, the magnitude of vulnerability varies with the story. In Stoker, for example, Dracula is merely weakened, not destroyed, by sunlight.
  • Some fictional vampires are fascinated with counting, an idea derived from folk stories about vampires being compelled to stop and count any spilled grain they find in their path. The most famous fictional counting vampire is likely Muppet character Count von Count on television's Sesame Street. Other examples include a fifth season episode of the X-Files titled Bad Blood, and the Discworld novel, "Carpe Jugulum" by Terry Pratchett.
  • Since the 1958 film Dracula, vampires are almost always depicted as having fangs. These fangs are sometimes retractable, only becoming visible when the vampire is about to feed. In some T.V. shows or books, vampires are able to hide their fangs and project them at will, thus being harder to recognize.
  • In most T.V. shows and movies, a sign that someone is a vampire is, a cape, cloak, or something else with a high collar to obscure the bite marks. Many modern vampires wear trenchcoats to maintain their spooky image.

[edit] Literature

[edit] Vampire fiction series

There are many series in vampire fiction. They tend to either take the form of direct sequels (or prequels) to the first book published or detail the ongoing adventures of particular characters.

  • Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series:
    • Storm Front (2000)
    • Fool Moon (2000)
    • Grave Peril (2001)
    • Summer Knight (2002)
    • Death Masks (2003)
    • Blood Rites (2004)
    • Dead Beat (2005)
    • Proven Guilty (2006)
    • White Night (2007)
  • Nancy A. Collins' Sonja Blue series:
    • Sunglasses After Dark (1989)
    • In The Blood (1992)
    • Paint It Black (1995)
    • Midnight Blue (omnibus) (1995)
    • A Dozen Black Roses (1996)
    • Darkest Heart (2000)
    • Dead Roses For A Blue Lady (2002)
  • Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series:
    • Anno Dracula (1992)
    • The Bloody Red Baron (1995)
    • Dracula Cha Cha Cha (also published as Judgment of Tears) (1998)
    • Johnny Alucard
  • Christine Feehan's Dark series:
    • Dark Prince (1999)
    • Dark Desire (1999)
    • Dark Gold (2000)
    • Dark Magic (2000)
    • Dark Challenge (2000)
    • Dark Fire (2001)
    • After Twilight ("Dark Dream") with Amanda Ashley and Ronda Thompson (2001)
    • Dark Legend (2001)
    • Dark Guardian (2002)
    • Dark Symphony (2003)
    • The Only One ("Dark Descent") with Susan Grant and Susan Squires (2003)
    • Dark Melody (2003)
    • Dark Destiny (2004)
    • Hot Blooded ("Dark Hunger") with Emma Holly, Angela Knight and Maggie Shayne (2004)
    • Dark Secret (2005)
    • Dark Demon (2006)
    • Dark Celebration: A Carpathian Reunion (2006)
  • Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series:
    • Guilty Pleasures (1993)
    • The Laughing Corpse (1994)
    • Circus of the Damned (1995)
    • The Lunatic Cafe (1996)
    • Bloody Bones (1996)
    • Club Vampyre (omnibus) (1997)
    • The Killing Dance (1997)
    • The Midnight Cafe (omnibus) (1997)
    • Black Moon Inn (omnibus) (1998)
    • Burnt Offerings (1998)
    • Blue Moon (1998)
    • Obsidian Butterfly (2000)
    • Narcissus in Chains (2001)
    • Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Set (omnibus) (2003)
    • Cerulean Sins (2003)
    • Incubus Dreams (2004)
    • Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Omnibus (omnibus) (2005)
    • Nightshade Tavern (omnibus) (2005)
    • Micah (2006)
    • Danse Macabre (2006)
  • Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse (Southern Vampire) series:
    • Dead Until Dark (2001}
    • Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
    • Club Dead (2003)
    • Dead to the World (2004)
    • Night's Edge (story without the character of Sookie Stackhouse) (2004)
    • Dead as a Doornail (2005)
    • Definitely Dead (2006)
    • All Together Dead (2007)
  • E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth series:
    • Way of the Wolf (2001)
    • Choice of the Cat (2004)
    • Tale of the Thunderbolt (2005)
    • Valentine's Rising (2005)
    • Valentine's Exile (2006)
  • Karen Koehler's Slayer series:
    • Slayer (2001)
    • Black Miracles (2002)
    • Stigmata (2003)
  • Brian Lumley's Necroscope series:
    • Necroscope (1986)
    • Necroscope II: Wamphyri! (aka Necroscope II:Vamphyri!) (1988)
    • The Source: Necroscope III (1989)
    • Deadspeak: Necroscope IV (1990)
    • Deadspawn: Necroscope V (1991)
    • Necroscope: The Lost Years (1995)
    • Necroscope The Lost Years: Volume II (aka Necroscope: Resurgence) (1996)
    • Invaders (1999)
    • Defilers: Necroscope (2000)
    • Avengers: Necroscope (2001)
    • Harry Keogh: Necroscope and Other Heroes (2003)
    • The Touch (2006)
  • Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series:
    • Twilight (October 2005) - The first book in Stephenie Meyers popular series. The story revolves around an incredibly beautiful vampire named Edward Cullen who had fallen deeply in love with a young human female, Bella Swan. The thirst for Bella's delicious blood and other complexities add to the addicting plot of romance, suspense, and mystery.
    • New Moon (August 2006)
    • Eclipse (October 2007)
    • Midnight Sun (in development)
  • Christopher Moore's A Love Story series:
  • Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series:
    • Anno Dracula (1992)
    • The Bloody Red Baron (1995)
    • Judgment of Tears (aka Dracula Cha Cha Cha) (1998)
  • Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series:
    • Interview with the Vampire (1976)
    • The Vampire Lestat (1985)
    • The Queen of the Damned (1988)
    • The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
    • Memnoch the Devil (1995)
    • The Vampire Armand (1998)
    • Merrick (2000)
    • Blood and Gold (2001)
    • Blackwood Farm (2002)
    • Blood Canticle (2003)
  • Fred Saberhagen's Vlad Tepes series:
    • The Dracula Tape (1975)
    • The Holmes-Dracula File (1978)
    • An Old Friend of the Family (1979)
    • Thorn (1980)
    • Dominion (1982)
    • A Matter of Taste (1990)
    • A Question of Time (1992)
    • Seance for a Vampire (1994)
    • A Sharpness on the Neck (1996)
    • The Vlad Tapes (2000)
  • Ellen Schreiber's Vampire Kisses series
    • Vampire Kisses (2003)
    • Kissing Coffins (2005)
    • Vampireville (2006)
    • Dancing with Vampires (in development)
  • Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak series
    • A Living Nightmare... (2000)
    • The Vampire's Assistant (2000)
    • Tunnels of Blood (2000)
    • Vampire Mountain (2001)
    • Trials of Death (2001)
    • The Vampire Prince (2001)
    • Hunters of the Dusk (2002)
    • Allies of the Night (2002)
    • Killers of the Dawn (2003)
    • Lake of Souls (2003)
    • Lord of the Shadows (2004)
    • Sons of Destiny (2004)
  • Maggie Shayne's Wings in the Night series
    • Twilight Phantasie (1993)
    • Twilight Memories (1994)
    • Twilight Illusions (1995)
    • Beyond Twilight (1995)
    • Born in Twilight (1997)
    • Twilight Vows (1998)
    • Twilight Hunger (2002)
    • Embrace the Twilight (2003)
    • Run From Twilight (2003)
    • Edge of Twilight (2004)
    • Blue Twilight (2005)
    • Prince of Twilight (2006)
  • Whitley Strieber's Hunger series:
    • The Hunger (1980)
    • The Last Vampire (2001)
    • Lilith's Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life (2002)
  • Gene Wolfe's Urth: Book of the Short Sun trilogy:
    • On Blue's Waters (1999)
    • In Green's Jungles (2000)
    • Return to the Whorl (2001)
  • Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Saint-Germain series:
    • Hotel Transylvania (1978)
    • The Palace (1978)
    • Blood Games (1980)
    • Path of the Eclipse (1981)
    • Tempting Fate (1981)
    • The Saint-Germain Chronicles (1983)
    • Darker Jewels (1993)
    • Better in the Dark (1993)
    • Mansions of Darkness (1996)
    • Writ in Blood (1997)
    • Blood Roses (1998)
    • Communion Blood (1999)
    • Come Twilight (2000)
    • A Feast in Exile (2001)
    • Night Blooming (2002)
    • Midnight Harvest (2003)
    • Dark of the Sun (2004)
    • States of Grace (2005)
    • Roman Dusk (2006)
  • Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series:
    • The Last Vampire
    • The Last Vampire 2: Black Blood
    • The Last Vampire 3: Red Dice
    • The Last Vampire 4: Phantom
    • The Last Vampire 5: Evil Thirst
    • The Last Vampire 6: Creatures of Forever
  • Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt casefiles series:
    • Already Dead
    • No Dominion

[edit] References

  • Christopher Frayling (1992) Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1992) ISBN 0-571-16792-6
  • Freeland, Cynthia A. (2000) The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror. Westview Press.
  • Holte, James Craig. (1997) Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations. Greenwood Press.
  • Leatherdale, C. (1993) Dracula: The Novel and the Legend. Desert Island Books.
  • Melton, J. Gordon. (1999) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Visible Ink Press.

[edit] External links

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