Major Works in Vampire Literature Published in 1800s

The most influential and most famous of all vampire novels were published during the 1800s. Highly innovative for the times and groundbreaking, these stories took readers to an entirely new world and continue to this day to be read and loved by many. The stories below gave people something new to fear, something new to…

Vampire Tales that Belong on Cable TV

Consider. “True Blood” is a bona fide hit, as is the network television series “The Vampire Diaries.” Now consider the huge success of various other cable shows–from “Dexter” to “Weeds” to the epic “Game of Thrones.” Might we not ask cable television to give us some more undead-themed television, especially since cable allows generally higher…

Vampires: The Nightmare Strangers

Someone asked why I thought vampires remained so popular and intriguing. My answer: Because the undead make such a fluid metaphor. Consider; when they first entered into the Western literature and art–with John Polidori’s “The Vampyre.” For much of the next century, vampires popped up in art and theatre as well as different stories. “Varney…

Varney the Vampyre, or the Feast of Blood

A lot more people have heard or read about “Varney The Vampyre, or The Feast of Blood” than have actually read it. Easy to understand, really. The thing comes to over two hundred meandering chapters, written in a style florid and over the top even by Victorian standards! Here is an example: It is now…

Dark Shadows – Ahead of its Time?

Fans of haemovores everywhere probably already know that Johnny Depp has plans to reunite with Tim Burton in a motion picture adaptation of the cult t.v. series “Dark Shadows.” The whole idea of Depp as a vampire no doubt has sent many a heart aflutter. Quite understandably! It is one of those ideas that seems…

A Vampire’s Fangs

The long canine fangs of a vampire shining in the moonlight right before they sink them into the throat of some poor defenseless human. Sound familiar? Fangs are yet another example of the way in which authors and films have made an otherwise unrelated characteristic one of the most recognized traits of the undead. The…

Never Ending Emo Vampires

Let me set up the scene for you – you have the full moon shining down on the dark dismal cemetery and there, sitting upon an aged mausoleum is a vampire. This vampire is just sitting there staring into the nothing, brooding all serious-like. This here is your classic emo vampire, the vampire that sits…

The First: Der Vampire

Vampires have been part of literature for ages and ages now. Almost all of today’s popular fiction authors have at least one vampire story out there; the recently released vampire anthology, By Blood We Live, has shown us that. There are many that think that it was the renowned Bram Stoker and his legendary novel,…