Vampire fiction: Encyclopedia - Vampire fiction

Vampire fiction

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. Myths and legends of blood-imbibing creatures capable of transmogrification predate the novel form. The immediate antecedent of Dracula is Sheridan le Fanu's classic of the genre, Carmilla. This in turn owes more than a little to John William Polidori's The Vampyre; this work was contemporaneous to Lord Byron's poem The Giaour which also treats on this subject. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel (written between 1797 and 1801, but not published until 1816) does not involve blood-drinking, but can easily be viewed as a 'vampire tale'.

Lord Byron introduced many common elements of the vampire theme to Western literature in his epic poem The Giaour (1813). These include the combination of horror and lust that the vampire feels and the concept of the undead passing its inheritance to the living (Note: In the following excerpt, corse is "corpse"):

Byron's own wild life became the model for the protagonist Lord Ruthven in the first vampire novel, The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori. 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 novel 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.

Bram Stoker's Dracula 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 England where tuberculosis and syphilis were common.

Dracula appears to be based at least partially on legends about a real person, Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler), a notorious Wallachian (Romanian) prince of the 15th century known also as Vlad III Dracula. He was the son of Vlad II Dracul. Vlad II received the title Dracul ("The Dragon") after being inducted into the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In Romanian, Dracul means dragon or devil, and Dracula (or Draculea) means "son of the Dragon" (or "son of the Devil", though "son of the Dragon" was intended in this case). Stoker is believed to have seen a reference in an article by Emily Gerard who said that Dracula was a word meaning the Devil. (Emily Gerard, "Transylvanian Superstitions." Nineteenth Century (July 1885): 130–150). Oral tradition regarding Ţepeş includes his having made a practice of torturing enemy prisoners and hanging them, or parts of them, such as heads, on stakes around his castle or manor house. Ţepeş may have suffered from porphyria. His rumored periodic abdominal agony, especially after eating, and bouts of delirium might, although it is not likely, indicate presence of the disease. Technically, the influence of Vlad Ţepeş on Count dracula can be summed to 3 points : a) the name Dracula, b) the count's Romanian origin and c) his appearance as a mustachioed gentleman (although attentive readers will notice the count is white haired, which certainly never was the case of Vlad Ţepeş, who was killed at age 45) .

Stoker also probably derived inspiration from Irish myths of blood-sucking creatures. He also was almost certainly 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.

Much 20th-century vampire fiction draws heavily on Stoker's formulation; early films such as Nosferatu and those featuring Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee are examples of this. Nosferatu, in fact, was clearly based on Dracula, and 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 England.

Though most other works of vampire fiction do not feature Dracula as a character, there is typically a clear inspiration from Stoker, reflected in a fascination with sex and wealth, as well as overwhelmingly frequent use of Gothic settings and iconography. A contemporary descendant is the series of novels by Anne Rice, the most popular in a genre of modern stories that use vampires as their (sometimes sympathetic) protagonists. Darren Shan writes young adult books with a similar slant.

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 cannabalistic/bloodsucking beings changed the genre forever. One man is the sole survivor of a pandemic of a bacterium that causes vampirism. Continually, 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. The 1981 novel and 1983 film The Hunger also examined the biology of Vampires, followed by a variety of contemporary authors.

Vampire fiction - Literature

• The Giaour (1813) by Lord Byron.
• Christabel (1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
• The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori.
• Varney the Vampire or The Feast of Blood (1845) by James Malcolm Rymer, a Victorian best-seller and pot-boiler.
• The Vampire Countess (La Vampire) (1856) by Paul Féval
• Le Chevalier Ténèbre also by Paul Féval
• Vampire City (La Ville Vampire) (1867) by Paul Féval
• Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan le Fanu, perhaps the most atmospheric vampire story ever.
• Manor (1884) by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
• The True Story of the Vampire (1894) by Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock
• Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker (also the inspiration for many films).
• The House of the Vampire (1907) by George Sylvester Viereck
• I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson.
• 'Salem's Lot (1975) by Stephen King.
• The Dracula series of novels (1975–1996) by science fiction author Fred Saberhagen.
• Interview with the Vampire (1976) (also a film) and other books in The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice.
• Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's series about Count Saint-Germain, called a "three-dimensional vampire," began in 1978 with Hotel Transylvania.
• For younger readers, the Little Vampire series, by Angela Sommer Bodenberg, began in 1979.
• The Hunger (1981) and two sequels(2001 and 2002) by Whitley Strieber.
• Fevre Dream (1982) by George R. R. Martin
• The Empire of Fear (1988) by Brian Stableford.
• Those of My Blood (1988) by Jacqueline Lichtenberg.
• Vampire$ (1990) by John Steakley.
• The Gilda Stories (1991) by Jewelle Gomez, features a lesbian vampire.
• Tanya Huff's vampire series began in 1991 with Blood Price.
• The Undead (1992) and Cold Kiss (1996) by Roxanne Longstreet.
• The Season of Passage (1992) by Christopher Pike
• The Anno-Dracula (1992–1998) series by Kim Newman, "what if?" tales extrapolating the events of Dracula if Dracula had not been stopped and had later married Queen Victoria.
• Guilty Pleasures (1993) and subsequent books in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.
• Pam Keesey edited two anthologies of lesbian vampire stories, Daughters of Darkness (1993) and Dark Angels (1995).
• The books I, Strahd, Memories of the Vampire (1993) and I, Strahd, the War with Azalin by P.N. Elrod tells the tale of the vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich who occupies the castle Ravenloft.
• Mick Farren's Victor Renquist novels started in 1996.
• Dracula the Undead by (1997) Freda Warrington
• Carpe Jugulum (1998) by Terry Pratchett pastiches the traditions of vampire literature, plays with the mythic archetypes and features a tongue-in-cheek reversal of vampyre subculture with young vampires who wear bright clothes, drink wine, and stay up until noon.
• Jim Butcher's urban fantasy series, The Dresden Files, featuring vampires, began in 2000.
• Amelia Atwater-Rhodes novels In the Forests of the Night (2000), Demon in My View (2001), Midnight Predator (2002), and Shattered Mirror (2003).
• Cirque du Freak (2001) is series for younger readers by Darren Shan.
• Dead Until Dark (2001) and subsequent books in the series The Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris.
• Slayer (2004) and subsequent books in the Slayer series by Karen Koehler.
• The Historian (2005) by Elizabeth Kostova.
• Fledging (2005) by Octavia Butler.

Vampire fiction - Films and television

Vampires have been a film staple since the silent days. The Vampire (film) (1913, directed by Robert G. Vignola), also co-written by Vignola, is the earliest vampire film. The landmark Nosferatu (1922 Germany, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau) was an unlicensed version of Dracula based so closely on Bram Stoker's Dracula, the estate sued and won, with all copies being destroyed. (It would be painstakingly restored in 1994 by a team of European scholars from the five surviving prints.) By 2005, Dracula had been the subject of more films than any other fictional character.

The treatment of vampires has been kaleidoscopic. It has been comedic, including Old Dracula (1974 UK, directed by Clive Donner) featuring David Niven as a lovelorn Drac and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995 USA, directed by Mel Brooks) with Canadian Leslie Nielsen giving it a comic twist, to absurd, with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Vampirism has changed from embodied evil in Dracula to a kind of virus in David Cronenberg's Rabid (1976 Canada) and Red-Blooded American Girl (1990 Canada, directed by David Blyth). It got an SF spin in The Last Man on Earth (Italy 1964, directed by Ubaldo Ragona) and The Omega Man (1971 USA, directed by Boris Sagal), both based on Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend (writing as Logan Swanson), the product of a biological war. Race has not been excluded, either, as exemplified by the blaxploitation picture Blacula (1972 USA, directed by William Crain) and several sequels.

Killing vampires has changed, too. Where Abraham Van Helsing relied on a stake through the heart, in Vampire$ (1997 USA, directed by John Carpenter), Jack Crow (James Woods) has a heavily-armed squad of vampire hunters, and in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992 USA, directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui), writer Joss Whedon (who created TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spinoff Angel) attached The Slayer, Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson), to a network of Watchers and mystically endowed her with superhuman powers.

Murnau's Nosferatu (magnificently portrayed by Max Schrek) was ancient-looking and ugly, as he was expected to be at that time. The vampire was transformed from a creature of disgust and fear into an object of lust, in such films as Camilla (released as La Maldicion De Los Karnstein, 1963), Daughters of Darkness (released as Children Of The Night, 1971), Dracula (1979), and Once Bitten (1985), for just a few examples. Delphine Seyrig, Frank Langella, or Lauren Hutton could hardly be called ugly. Even X-rated films (such as 1978’s Dracula Sucks and 1999's Hot Vampire Nights) have used vampire themes.

Yet times are changing. In 2002, Shadow of the Vampire (2000 UK/USA/Luxembourg, directed by E. Elias Merhige) starred Willem Dafoe as leading man Max Schrek, playing an actual vampire, and John Malkovich as a harassed Murnau. It would be notable had it only been a movie about moviemaking, the making of a genre classic, yet in addition the performances are stellar. Dafoe's character is the ugly, disgusting creature of the original Nosferatu. The vampire genre has come full circle.

Vampire fiction - Dracula and his legacy

By far, the most well-known and popular vampire in the movies is Dracula. An amazing number of movies have been filmed over the years depicting the evil count, some of which are ranked among the greatest depictions of vampires on film. Dracula has over 160 film representations making him the most frequently portrayed character in horror films.

• Nosferatu (1922; starring Max Schreck, remade 1979 with Klaus Kinski) – unlicensed German adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel
• Dracula (1931) – the first Universal Studios Dracula film, starring Bela Lugosi
• Spanish Dracula (1931) – Spanish-language version starring Carlos Villar, made simultaneously with the Bela Lugosi film, using the same sets on a timeshare basis
• Dracula's Daughter (1936) – Follow up to the 1931 film, starring Gloria Holden
• Son of Dracula (1943) – further sequel to the 1931 film starring Lon Chaney Jr.
• House of Frankenstein (1944) – John Carradine plays Dracula as part of an ensemble cast in this Universal Studios film
• House of Dracula (1945) – The final serious Universal Studios Dracula film, starring Carradine
• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – Lugosi played Dracula on film for the second and final time in this comedy-horror hybrid that concluded the Universal Studios series.
• Dracula (1958; aka Horror of Dracula) – the first Hammer Horror Dracula film, starring Christopher Lee
• Countess Dracula (1970)
• Blacula (1972) – a blaxploitation cult film in which an African prince is turned into a vampire by Dracula
• Blood for Dracula (1974) - also released as Andy Warhol's Dracula (x-rated)
• Dracula Sucks (1978) - (x-rated)
• Dracula (1979) – a film in the gothic romantic tradition starring Frank Langella
• Love At First Bite (1979) – romantic comedy spoof starring George Hamilton
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) – attempt at filming the story quite close to Stoker's novel, but merging the medieval story of Vlad Tepeş; starring Gary Oldman as Dracula
• Monster Force (1994) – an animated television series featuring Dracula as the mastermind of Evil, the Prince of Darkness and the main antagonist of the series
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) – a parody of Dracula films by Mel Brooks; Leslie Nielsen as Dracula
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - loosely connected through Mina Harker being vampiric after an encounter with Dracula.
• Van Helsing (2004) – action movie only loosely connected to the original Dracula; Richard Roxburgh as Dracula
• Blade: Trinity (2004) - Drake the vampire is supposed to have had many forms throughout the centuries, Stoker's Dracula being one of them.

Vampire fiction - Other movies and television

• The Vampire (1913 - directed and co-written by Robert G. Vignola
• Les Vampires (1915)
• London After Midnight (1927)
• Vampyr (1932)
• Mark of the Vampire (1935)
• Return of the Vampire (1943)
• Not of This Earth (1957)
• Camilla (1964)
• The Last Man on Earth (1964) - based on the novel I Am Legend
• Kiss of the Vampire (1964)
• Dark Shadows TV series (1966 and 1991)
• The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
• Le Rogue aux Levres (Daughters of Darkness) & (Children of the Night) (1971)
• The Omega Man (1971) - also based on the novel I Am Legend
• Twins of Evil (1971)
• The Night Stalker (1972)
• Vampire Circus (1973)
• The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) - a kung fu vampire movie, a co-production between Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers and England's Hammer Studios, a cross between Hammer's popular Dracula series with classic Shaw style Kung Fu
• Rabid (1976)
• Salem's Lot (1979)
• The serials State of Decay (1980) and The Curse of Fenric (1989) from the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
• The Hunger (1983)
• Fright Night (1985)
  • Fright Night II (1989)
• Once Bitten (1985)
• Vampire Hunter D (1985)
• Vamp (1986)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• Near Dark (1987)
• Vampire's Kiss (1989)
• Red-Blooded American Girl (1990)
• Subspecies (1991)
  • Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
  • Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994)
  • Vampire Journals (1997)
  • Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm (1998)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), the TV show of the same name and its television spinoff Angel
• Forever Knight TV Series (1992)
• Innocent Blood (1992)
• Cronos (1993)
• Interview with the Vampire (1994)
• Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
  • From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)
  • From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000)
• Tales From the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (1996)
• Ultraviolet (1998)
• Blade (1998)
  • Blade II (2002)
  • Blade: Trinity (2004)
• Vampires (1998)
  • Vampires: Los Muertos (2002)
  • Vampires: The Turning (2005)
• Modern Vampires (1998)
• Hot Vampire Nights (1999) (x-rated)
• Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
• Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2001)
• Queen of the Damned (2002)
• Hellsing (2002)
• Underworld (2003)
• Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) (2004) Russian Fantasy film partially involving vampires
  • Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Vampire fiction - Other media

Video game series featuring vampires primarily use Dracula or Dracula-inspired characters (such as the appearance in Conker's Bad Fur Day). Konami's Castlevania series is the longest running series which uses the Dracula legend, though its writers have made their own alterations to the legend. An exception to this trend is the Legacy of Kain video game series, which features vampires set in an entirely fictional world called Nosgoth.

Other vampire tales seen in games include:

• The video game series Castlevania (1986–present) is a long-running series in which the protagonist battles a new incarnation of Dracula in every game.
• Role-playing games such as Vampire: The Masquerade (1992), in which the participants play the roles of fictional vampires (for specifics, see vampires in the World of Darkness).
• The Elder Scrolls game series involves vampires created by demon lord. They have all the typical attributes, but can absorb the life force of enemies merely by touching their skin.
• The Darkstalkers (1994) fighting game series (known as Vampire in Japan) features a vampire along with other mythological and horror-themed characters.
• The video game series Legacy of Kain (1996–present) is a five game long series, in which vampires were a wise, ancient race who had their thirst for blood, immortality, and aversion to sunlight inflicted on them by another race called the Hylden.
• Shadowrun features vampires whose existence is explained by a resurgance of the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus.

In addition to gaming, vampires populate other popular cultural media, including graphic novels, comics, theater and musicals:

• Comic books and graphic novels such as Vampirella (1969), Tomb of Dracula (1972), the aforementioned Blade (1973), and 30 Days of Night (2002). In addition, many major superheroes have faced vampire supervillains at some point.
• The comic book series Purgatori (1998–present) revolves around a slavegirl in ancient Egypt who becomes a vampire goddess.
• First performed at the Limbo Lounge in New York City's East Village in 1984, the play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom became so popular it was moved Off-Broadway in June, 1985. It ran five years at the Provincetown Playhouse. One of the longest running plays in Off-Broadway history, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, by Charles Busch, tells the story of two fatally seductive vampiresses whose paths first collide in ancient Sodom. Their bitter rivalry as bloodsuckers but more importantly, as actresses, endures for two thousand years with stops along the way in 1920’s silent movie Hollywood and contemporary Las Vegas.
• Dance of the Vampires (1997) is a musical from Jim Steinman.
• Japanese anime and manga features vampires in several titles, including Vampire Princess Miyu (OAV1988, TV series1997), Nightwalker(1998), Vampire Hunter D (2000), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Hellsing (2002), Vampire Host (2004), Tsukihime, Lunar Legend (2003) and Tsukuyomi - Moon Phase (2004).

Vampire fiction - Sources

• Christopher Frayling - Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1992) ISBN 0571167926
• Holte, James Craig. - Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations. Greenwood Press, 1997.
• Freeland, Cynthia A. - The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror. Westview Press, 2000.
• http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=1012

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Vampire fiction", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki