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98-682: The Lord Ruthven Award is an annual award presented by the Lord Ruthven Assembly, a group of academic scholars specialising in vampire literature and affiliated with the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA). The award is presented for the best fiction on vampires and the best academic work on the study of the vampire figure in culture and literature. The award is presented each March at

196-573: A fifth season episode of the X-Files titled Bad Blood , and the Discworld novel, Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett . Some modern fictional vampires are portrayed as having magical powers beyond those originally assigned by myth, typically also possessing the powers of a witch or seer. Such examples include Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Drusilla was a seer before she

294-507: A serial in The Dark Blue (1871–72), the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Countess Mircalla Karnstein. The lead character is the original prototypical example of the lesbian vampire , expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist. The story is often anthologised , and has been adapted many times in films, movies and other media. Carmilla , serialised in

392-450: A Russian officer, Boris Liatoukine, who is a vampire. In German literature, one of the most popular novels was Hans Wachenhusen's Der Vampyr – Novelle aus Bulgarien (1878), which, on account of the author's first-hand experience of Ottoman society, includes a detailed description of the multicultural society of Bulgaria, and which contains an atmosphere that is "in some parts comparable to Dracula ". The most famous Serbian vampire

490-551: A Winter in Lower Styria (London and Edinburgh, 1836) are other sources for Le Fanu's Carmilla . Hall's account provides much of the Styrian background and, in particular, a model for both Carmilla and Laura in the figure of Jane Anne Cranstoun, Countess Purgstall . Carmilla, the title character, is the original prototype for a legion of female and lesbian vampires . Although Le Fanu portrays his vampire's sexuality with

588-648: A companion. A carriage accident outside Laura's home unexpectedly brings a girl of Laura's age into the family's care. Her name is Carmilla. Both girls instantly recognise each other from the "dream" they both had when they were young. Carmilla appears injured after her carriage accident, but her mysterious mother informs Laura's father that her journey is urgent and cannot be delayed. She arranges to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months. Before she leaves, she sternly notes that her daughter will not disclose any information whatsoever about her family, her past, or herself, and that Carmilla

686-461: A costume ball, Spielsdorf and his niece Bertha had met a very beautiful young woman named Millarca and her enigmatic mother. Bertha was immediately taken with Millarca. The mother convinced the General that she was an old friend of his and asked that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she attended to a secret matter of great importance. Bertha fell mysteriously ill, suffering

784-516: A curse as she retains her child-body for her entire vampire lifetime and any modifications on her body, such as even cutting her hair, grows it back to the same length as it was before. A similar occurrence can be observed in the Twilight series - when Bella is turned into a vampire, her wounds heal, hair becomes healthy and shiny, her broken back and ribs get mended, the color comes back to her skin, and her sunken eyes, cheeks and skinny body return to

882-547: A female vampire with lesbian inclinations who seduces the heroine Laura while 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). Marie Nizet 's Le Capitaine Vampire (1879) features

980-447: A film in 1983) continued the theme of open sexuality and examined the biology of vampires, suggesting that their special abilities were the result of physical properties of their blood. The novel suggested that not all vampires were undead humans, but some were a separate species that had evolved alongside humans. This interpretation of vampires has since then been used in several science-fiction stories dealing with vampires, most famously

1078-479: A healthy state; in fact she is brought back to life from the brink of death by turning her into a vampire. In the Dracula novel, the vampire hunter Van Helsing prescribes that a vampire be destroyed by a wooden stake (preferably made of white oak ) through the heart, decapitation , drowning, or incineration. The vampire's head must be removed from its body, the mouth stuffed with garlic and holy water or relics,

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1176-426: A large dog as in Dracula . She did, however, sleep in a coffin. Carmilla works as a Gothic horror story because her victims are portrayed as succumbing to a perverse and unholy temptation that has severe metaphysical consequences for them. Some critics, among them William Veeder , suggest that Carmilla , notably in its outlandish use of narrative frames, was an important influence on Henry James ' The Turn of

1274-547: A notorious 15th-century Wallachian (Romanian) warlord, or Voivode , this has been debunked by multiple scholars. 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

1372-517: A pale appearance rather than the dark or ruddy skin of folkloric vampires and their skin is cool to the touch. As in folklore, literary vampires can usually be warded off with garlic and symbols of the Christian faith, such as holy water , a crucifix , or a rosary . According to literary scholar Nina Auerbach in Our Vampires, Ourselves , the influence of the moon was seen as dominant in

1470-551: A portrait of her ancestor, Countess Mircalla Karnstein, dated 1698. The portrait resembles Carmilla exactly, down to the mole on her neck. Carmilla suggests that she might be descended from the Karnsteins, though the family died out centuries before. During Carmilla's stay, Laura has nightmares of a large, cat-like beast entering her room. The beast springs onto the bed and Laura feels something like two needles, an inch or two apart, darting deep into her breast. The beast then takes

1568-430: A rage upon seeing each other, and the General attacks her with an axe. Carmilla disarms the General and disappears. The General explains that Carmilla is also Millarca, both anagrams for the original name of the vampire Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. The party is joined by Baron Vordenburg, the descendant of the hero who rid the area of vampires long ago. Vordenburg, an authority on vampires, has discovered that his ancestor

1666-484: A remarkably popular and ever-expanding contemporary publishing phenomenon. L. A. Banks ' The Vampire Huntress Legend Series , Laurell K. Hamilton 's erotic Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and Kim Harrison 's The Hollows series, portray the vampire in a variety of new perspectives, some of them unrelated to the original legends. Vampires in the Twilight series (2005–2008) by Stephenie Meyer ignore

1764-455: A representation of the dark side of all mankind. As with Dracula , critics have looked for the sources used in the writing of Carmilla . One source used was from a dissertation on magic, vampires, and the apparitions of spirits written by Dom Augustin Calmet entitled Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou les revenants de Hongrie, de Moravie, &c. (1751). This

1862-404: A river. Afterwards, Laura's father takes his daughter on a year-long tour through Italy to regain her health and recover from the trauma, but she never fully does. “Carmilla” exhibits the primary characteristics of Gothic fiction. It includes a supernatural figure, a dark setting of an old castle, a mysterious atmosphere, and ominous or superstitious elements. In the novella, Le Fanu abolishes

1960-408: A vampire, although that occurrence is actually marginal to the story. It has been argued 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. Though Coleridge never finished

2058-436: A very influential horror writer of the late 20th and early 21st century, evidenced by the nearly sixty books he has published over the past 50 years selling around the world in multiple languages. King's repertoire often hybridizes traditional vampire folklore with the coy charm inspired by Bela Lugosi's performance while increasing the physical violence, carnage, and overall butchery. His work describes very graphically in detail

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2156-502: A wealthy English widower retired from service to the Austrian Empire . When she was six, Laura had a vision of a very beautiful visitor in her bedchamber. She later claims to have been punctured in her breast, although no wound was found. All the household assure Laura that it was just a dream, but they step up security as well and there is no subsequent vision or visitation. Twelve years later, Laura and her father are admiring

2254-409: A wolf, bat, mist and fog. He can also crawl up and down the vertical external walls of his castle in the manner of a lizard. One very famous trait that Stoker added is the inability to be seen in mirrors, which is not found in traditional Eastern European folklore, as Stoker combined the folklore of Jiangshi being terrified of their own reflection with the material fact of the silver backed mirrors of

2352-490: Is Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith , in which the historic Abraham Lincoln has a fictional secret identity as a hunter of evil vampires. The 21st century brought more examples of vampire fiction, such as J. R. Ward 's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and other highly popular vampire books which appeal to teenagers and young adults. Such vampiric paranormal romance novels and allied vampiric chick-lit and vampiric occult detective stories are

2450-403: Is a similar product of a culture with strict sexual mores and tangible religious fear. While Carmilla selected exclusively female victims, she only becomes emotionally involved with a few. Carmilla had nocturnal habits, but was not confined to the darkness. She had unearthly beauty, and was able to change her form and to pass through solid walls. Her animal alter ego was a monstrous black cat, not

2548-482: Is a tendency, however, for authors to pick and choose the ones they like, or find more realistic ones, and have their characters ridicule the rest as absurd. For example, in the movie Blade , the vampire hunter Blade tells Karen Jenson what kills vampires (stakes, silver, and sunlight), and dismisses tactics seen in vampire movies (namely crosses and running water) as ineffective. Some vampires can fly. This power may be supernatural levitation, or it may be connected to

2646-531: Is also notable in the novel that Dracula can walk about in the daylight, in bright sunshine, though apparently in discomfort and 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. Fatal exposure to sunlight of a vampire in their coffin dates at least as far back as The Story Of Yand Manor House (1898) by E. and H. Heron; such scenes in vampire films however, most especially 1922's Nosferatu and

2744-421: Is applied to astronauts via gene-therapy. At the end of the novel it is implied the vampires have taken control of earth and may be exterminating baseline humanity. In recent years, vampire fiction has been one of many supernatural fiction genres used in the creation of mashups . These works combine either a pre-existing text or a historic figure with elements of genre fiction. One of the best-known of these works

2842-470: 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 way or another, the narrative poem Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger being a notable 18th-century example (though the apparently returned lover is actually revealed to be death himself in disguise). One of its lines, Denn die Todten reiten schnell ("For

2940-453: Is called "Crucifix Glitch", leading to them dying out when modern technology with all its structures swept the world). Implied to have vastly superior intelligence and problem-solving capabilities, they were recreated from gene snippets for special tasks, with special drugs alleviating their crucifix glitch. One particularly important vampire trait is their ability to hibernate for extended periods of time, which makes cryogenic stasis possible and

3038-469: Is even more threatening to men if we consider Carmilla's vampiric predecessors and their relationship with their prey. Carmilla is the opposite of those male vampires – she is actually involved with her victims both emotionally and (theoretically) sexually. Moreover, she is able to exceed even more limitations by dominating death. In the end, her immortality is suggested to be sustained by the river where her ashes had been scattered. Le Fanu also departs from

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3136-463: Is evidenced by a report analysed by Calmet, from a priest who learned information of a town being tormented by a vampiric entity three years earlier. Having travelled to the town to investigate and collecting information of the various inhabitants there, the priest learned that a vampire had tormented many of the inhabitants at night by coming from the nearby cemetery and would haunt many of the residents on their beds. An unknown Hungarian traveller came to

3234-451: Is in stark contrast to the vampire of Eastern European folklore, which was a horrifying animated corpse. However, as in folklore, the literary vampire is sustained by drinking blood. They do not need other 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. The fictional vampire, however, often has

3332-419: Is of sound mind. Laura comments that this information seems needless to say, and her father laughs it off. Carmilla and Laura grow to be very close friends, but occasionally Carmilla's mood abruptly changes. She sometimes makes romantic advances towards Laura. Carmilla refuses to tell anything about herself, despite questioning by Laura. Her secrecy is not the only mysterious thing about Carmilla; she never joins

3430-575: Is recounted in a minimalist style that makes no explicit mention to vampires, the undead, graves or the Underworld, conveying, nevertheless, the underlying theme unambiguously and in striking physical detail. Peter Watts ' novel Blindsight has explored a scientific basis for vampires, depicting them as an evolutionary offshoot from humanity who were not the dominant species on the planet solely due to an evolutionary glitch making them averse to Euclidean geometry (right angles cause seizures in what

3528-451: Is represented by Jim Butcher 's The Dresden Files fantasy series (2000–), and Charlaine Harris 's The Southern Vampire Mysteries (2001–). In the field of juvenile and young adult literature, Darren Shan wrote a 12-book series ( The Saga of Darren Shan ) about a boy who becomes a vampire's assistant, beginning with Cirque Du Freak (2000) and ending with Sons of Destiny (2006). A film adaptation has been made of

3626-747: 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. Heathcliff in Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights (1847) is suspected of being a vampire by his housekeeper at one point, which he immediately laughs off as "absurd nonsense". Fascinating erotic fixations are evident in Sheridan Le Fanu 's classic novella Carmilla (1872), which features

3724-484: Is the concept of dualism presented through the juxtaposition of vampire and human, as well as lesbian and heterosexual. It is also vivid in Laura's irresolution, since she "feels both attraction and repulsion" towards Carmilla. The duality of Carmilla's character is suggested by her human attributes, the lack of predatory demeanour, and her shared experience with Laura. According to Gabriella Jönsson, Carmilla can be seen as

3822-461: 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. The novel was adapted into three movies: The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price in 1964, The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston in 1971, and I am Legend (film) starring Will Smith in 2007. The latter part of

3920-694: The Blade movie series. The 1982 novel Fevre Dream by notable author George R. R. Martin tells the tale of a race of living vampires, extremely human-like but obligate predators on humans, set in the Mississippi Riverboat era, where one of them has developed a dietary supplement to "cure" them, and is fighting for the right and opportunity to distribute it. Kim Newman 's Anno Dracula series (1992–) returns to Stoker's Count Dracula, looking at an alternate world where Dracula defeated Van Helsing's group and conquered Britain, and gives

4018-473: 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 to her that his teaching

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4116-648: The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in Orlando. The award is named after Lord Ruthven , one of the first vampires in English literature. Vampire fiction Vampire fiction is rooted in the "vampire craze" of the 1720s and 1730s, which culminated in the somewhat bizarre official exhumations of suspected vampires Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole in Serbia under

4214-590: 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 (1801), where the main character Thalaba's deceased beloved Oneiza turns into

4312-399: The new medium of cinema , as in the film Nosferatu , 20th-century vampire fiction went beyond traditional Gothic horror and explored new genres such as science fiction. An early example of this is Gustave Le Rouge 's Le prisonnier de la planète Mars (1908) and its sequel La guerre des vampires (1909), in which a native race of bat-winged, blood-drinking humanoids is found on Mars . In

4410-457: The "vampire trap" as a way for the title fiend to appear in a dream at the beginning and then to vanish into the earth at his destruction. Nodier's play was also the basis of an opera called Der Vampyr by the German composer Heinrich Marschner , who set the story in a more plausible Wallachia . Planché in turn translated the libretto of this opera into English in 1827, where it was performed at

4508-485: The 1920 novella La Jeune Vampire ( The Young Vampire ), by J.-H. Rosny aîné , vampirism is explained as a form of possession by souls originating in another universe known simply as the Beyond. Possibly the most influential example of modern vampire science fiction is Richard Matheson 's I Am Legend (1954). The novel is set in a future Los Angeles overrun with undead cannibalistic/bloodsucking beings. The protagonist

4606-569: The 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics. The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross 's Barnabas Collins series (1966–71) loosely based on the contemporary American TV soap opera Dark Shadows . It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic, tragic heroes rather than as the traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in the popular Vampire Chronicles (1976-2018) series of novels by Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro 's massive Saint-Germain series (1978–). Ross, Rice and Yarbro set

4704-418: The 20th century. "He'd probably be run over by a Yellow Cab on Park Avenue and killed," his wife replied, and it was from there that she suggested a different, rural setting. Salem's Lot , the book that resulted from that conversation, was published in 1975 as the follow-up to Carrie ; as of 2022, the process of weaving vampires into his stories is still ongoing. King's overall body of work spans both

4802-518: The Bridge handles the vampire legend in the context of a ritualistic post-theatrical drama performance. In a dystopian setting, under the arches of a derelict bridge, a group of social outcasts present an unconventional, non-Gothic version of a vampire drawing from ancient Greek religion and literature, Christian eschatology as well as traveler reports of vampire epidemics in the Balcans. The story

4900-553: The Lyceum also. Alexandre Dumas, père later redramatized the story in a play also entitled Le Vampire (1851). Another theatrical vampire of this period was "Sir Alan Raby", who is the lead character of The Vampire (1852), a play by Dion Boucicault . Boucicault himself played the lead role to great effect, though the play itself had mixed reviews. Queen Victoria, who saw the play, described it in her diary as "very trashy". An important later example of 19th-century vampire fiction

4998-641: The Right One In (2007) and a film adaptation has been produced. The story takes place in Blackeberg , a suburb of Stockholm. This particular novel does not follow the modern romantic trend, and instead focuses on a human-vampire friendship. Crucially, it retains many of the vampire traits popularized by Dracula . Dimitris Lyacos 's second book of the Poena Damni trilogy With the People from

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5096-580: The Victorian view of women as merely useful possessions of men, relying on them and needing their constant guardianship. The male characters of the story, such as Laura's father and General Spielsdorf, are exposed as being the opposite of the putative Victorian males – helpless and unproductive. The nameless father reaches an agreement with Carmilla's mother, whereas Spielsdorf cannot control the faith of his niece, Bertha. Both of these scenes portray women as equal, if not superior to men. This female empowerment

5194-411: The body drawn and quartered, then burned and spread into the four winds, with the head buried on hallowed ground. The destruction of the vampire Lucy follows the three-part process enjoined by Van Helsing (staking, decapitation, and garlic in the mouth). Traditional vampire folklore, followed by Stoker in Dracula , does not usually hold that sunlight is fatal to vampires, though they are nocturnal. It

5292-916: The building immediately. This is also featured in the American TV series True Blood , where Sookie withdraws her invitation on a number of occasions, causing vampires to be thrown out by supernatural forces. Also, in The Vampire Diaries when a newly turned vampire wakes up in a house that he was not invited into, he immediately flees. 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. Vampires are generally held to be unable to bear children, though

5390-707: The character of Angel in a prominent role, with Angel being a vampire who was cursed with his soul , restoring his capacity for compassion, but also forcing him to live with the guilt of what he did as a regular vampire. Post-Colonial perspectives on the vampire legend are provided in Nalo Hopkinson 's novel Brown Girl In The Ring (1998), which features the Soucouyant , a vampire of Caribbean folklore, and in Tananarive Due 's My Soul to Keep (1995) and its sequel The Living Blood (2001). One of

5488-425: The circumspection that one would expect for his time, lesbian attraction evidently is the main dynamic between Carmilla and the narrator of the story: Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with

5586-434: The closing scene of the 1958 film Dracula in which Count Dracula is burnt by the sun, were very influential on later vampire fiction. For instance, Anne Rice's vampire Lestat and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain both avoid the lethal effects of daylight by staying closeted indoors during the day. A well-known set of special powers and weaknesses is commonly associated with vampires in contemporary fiction. There

5684-494: The concept of a "half vampire" and similar creatures does exist in folklore and in some modern fiction. Some fictional vampires are fascinated with counting, an idea derived from folk stories about vampires being compelled to stop and count any spilled grain that they find in their path. The most famous fictional counting vampire is likely the Muppet character Count von Count on television's Sesame Street . Other examples include

5782-472: The creature in her dream bit her, and speaks privately with her father, only asking that Laura never be unattended. Her father sets out with Laura, in a carriage, for the ruined village of Karnstein, three miles distant. They leave a message behind asking Carmilla and one of the governesses to follow once the perpetually late-sleeping Carmilla awakes. En route to Karnstein, Laura and her father encounter General Spielsdorf. He tells them his own ghastly story. At

5880-524: The dead ride 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 sever'd link, Still to love the bridegroom I have lost, And

5978-495: 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. Although it has been claimed that the character of Count Dracula is based upon Vlad Draculesti III ( Vlad the Impaler ), also known as Vlad Ţepeş',

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6076-442: 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

6174-566: The effects of garlic and crosses and are not harmed by sunlight, although it does reveal their supernatural status. Richelle Mead further deviates from traditional vampires in her Vampire Academy series (2007–2010), basing the novels on Romanian lore with two races of vampires, one good and one evil, as well as half-vampires. 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 succubi and incubi ). This

6272-415: The fantasy world of its Vampire: The Masquerade game. These series of novels were released in 13-book sets, each corresponding to one of the 13 clans of vampires in their game universe. Carmilla Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction , predating Bram Stoker 's Dracula (1897) by 25 years. First published as

6370-621: The first three books called Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009). He is also currently writing a prequel to the Saga , a series of four books all about Larten Crepsley (one of the main characters) starting with Birth of a Killer (2010) and finishing with Brothers to the Death (2012). Ellen Schreiber created a young adult series about Raven Madison and her vampire boyfriend Alexander Sterling, starting with Vampire Kisses (2005). In Scott Westerfeld 's young adult novel Peeps (2005),

6468-414: The form of a female figure and disappears through the door without opening it. In another nightmare, Laura hears a voice say, "Your mother warns you to beware of the assassin," and a sudden light reveals Carmilla standing at the foot of her bed, her nightdress drenched in blood. Laura's health declines, and her father has a doctor examine her. He finds a small, blue spot, an inch or two below her collar, where

6566-450: The genre a somewhat postmodern spin. The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , created and largely written by Joss Whedon , also explored vampire folklore in the light of postmodern and feminist theory , defining the 'condition' as humans who were made to drink vampire blood after the vampire drinks from them, with turned vampires being essentially demons possessing human corpses; Buffy and its spin-off, Angel , also feature

6664-399: 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

6762-463: The household in its prayers, she sleeps much of the day, and she seems to sleepwalk outside at night. Meanwhile, young women and girls in the nearby towns have begun dying from an unknown malady. When the funeral procession of one such victim passes by the two girls, Laura joins in the funeral hymn. Carmilla bursts out in rage and scolds Laura, complaining that the hymn hurts her ears. When a shipment of restored heirloom paintings arrives, Laura finds

6860-890: The late 20th and early 21st centuries and Salem's Lot has over the years become one of his most important works. The title references a Maine town called Jerusalem's Lot and it is the centerpiece of 2 full novels and one short story, plus twelve other books that reference the town's existence within the multiverse that runs through all Stephen King books. King also has written several other works with vampires included in them in both long and short form including The Little Sisters of Elluria (1998), The Nightflier (1993, in Nightmares and Dreamscapes ), and several books in his series The Dark Tower (1982-2012) which also contains at least one character from Salem's Lot . Many of these have been brought to film and television as well as comic books. The 1981 novel The Hunger (adapted as

6958-401: 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 her death. The motive behind

7056-484: The literary magazine The Dark Blue in late 1871 and early 1872, was reprinted in Le Fanu's short-story collection In a Glass Darkly (1872). Comparing the work of two illustrators of the story, David Henry Friston and Michael Fitzgerald—whose work appears in the magazine article but not in modern printings of the book—reveals inconsistencies in the characters' depictions. Consequently, confusion has arisen relating

7154-412: The locked door, unharmed. Bertha died before the morning dawned. Upon arriving at Karnstein, the General asks a woodman where he can find the tomb of Mircalla Karnstein. The woodman says the tomb was relocated long ago by a Moravian nobleman who vanquished the vampires haunting the region. While the General and Laura are alone in the ruined chapel, Carmilla appears. The General and Carmilla both fly into

7252-410: The male lead include Lynsay Sands ' Argeneau family series (2003–), Charlaine Harris The Southern Vampire Mysteries series (2001–2013), and Christine Feehan 's Carpathian series (1999–). However, Laurell K. Hamilton 's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series has again shifted the genre boundaries from romance back toward the territory of erotica. The occult detective subgenre

7350-418: The moon's rays is the central image of midcentury vampire literature; fangs, penetration, sucking and staking are all peripheral to its lunar obsession. Bram Stoker's Dracula was hugely influential in its depiction of vampire traits, some of which are described by the novel's vampire expert Abraham Van Helsing . Dracula has the ability to change his shape at will, his featured forms in the novel being that of

7448-434: The more traditional vampire works of the 20th century is Stephen King 's 'Salem's Lot (1975), which re-imagines the archetypal Dracula -type story in a modern American small town setting. King acknowledged the influence of Dracula on the work, as well as the violent, pre- Comics Code vampires portrayed in horror comics such as those released by E.C. Comics . In 1989, a comprehensive bibliography of vampire literature

7546-442: The negative idea of female parasitism and lesbianism by depicting a mutual and irresistible connection between Carmilla and Laura. The latter, along with other female characters, becomes a symbol of all Victorian women – restrained and judged for their emotional reflexes. The ambiguity of Laura's speech and behaviour reveals her struggles with being fully expressive of her concerns and desires. Another important element of “Carmilla”

7644-420: The offspring of a vampire and a human known from Serbian folklore, has been popularized in recent fiction. There are several recent series in vampire fiction, of variable literary quality. 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. White Wolf , a maker of role-playing games , releases novels set in

7742-546: The pictures to the plot. Isabella Mazzanti illustrated the book's 2014 edition, published by Editions Soleil and translated by Gaid Girard. Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature. Laura, the teenaged protagonist, narrates, beginning with her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle amid an extensive forest in Styria , where she lives with her father,

7840-407: The poem, some argue that his intended plot had Geraldine eventually trying to marry Christabel after having assumed the appearance of Christabel's absent lover. The story bears a remarkable resemblance to the overtly vampiric story of Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872). In a passage in his epic poem The Giaour (1813), Lord Byron alludes to the traditional folkloric conception of

7938-489: The protagonist carries a contagious parasite that causes vampire-like behavior. Count Dracula also continues to inspire novelists, for example Elizabeth Kostova in The Historian (2005). Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist 's critically praised vampire story Låt den rätte komma in (2004), about the relationship of a 12-year-old boy with a 200-year-old vampire child, has now been translated into English as Let

8036-407: The ruthlessness of what essentially is a supernatural, parasitic predator that unleashes itself and intrudes on ordinary life for ordinary people, a recurring theme of his books. According to King himself, he was still a teacher at a high school when one of the books the class was studying was Bram Stoker's Dracula. Over dinner, he asked his wife, Tabitha , what would happen if Dracula came back in

8134-413: The same symptoms as Laura. After consulting with a specially ordered priestly doctor, the General realised that Bertha was being visited by a vampire. He hid with a sword and waited until a large, black creature of undefined shape crawled onto his niece's bed and spread itself onto her throat. He leapt from his hiding place and attacked the creature, which had then taken the form of Millarca. She fled through

8232-632: The stem. Byron also composed an enigmatic fragmentary story, published as " A Fragment " in 1819 as part of the Mazeppa collection, 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 the summer of 1816 , between him, Percy Bysshe Shelley , Mary Shelley and John William Polidori (who

8330-407: The sunset in front of the castle when her father tells her of a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf. The General was supposed to visit them with his niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt, but Bertha suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. The General ambiguously concludes that he will discuss the circumstances in detail when they meet later. Laura, saddened by the loss of a potential friend, longs for

8428-414: The time. Dracula also had protruding teeth, though was preceded in this by Varney the Vampire and Carmilla. In Anne Rice's books, the vampires appear their best self of the age they were turned into a vampire; for instance, when Claudia was turned into a vampire, her golden curls became tight and voluminous, her skin turns a pale but smooth and clear, and rids her of the rotting disease. But it also seems like

8526-653: The town during this period and helped the town by setting a trap at the cemetery and decapitating the vampire that resided there, curing the town of their torment. This story was retold by Le Fanu and adapted into the thirteenth chapter of Carmilla . According to Matthew Gibson, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould 's The Book of Were-wolves (1863) and his account of Elizabeth Báthory , Coleridge 's Christabel (Part 1, 1797 and Part 2, 1800), and Captain Basil Hall 's Schloss Hainfeld ; or

8624-433: The trend for multi-volume vampire sagas which are now a stock feature of mass-market fiction (see below for list). Rice's work also saw the beginning of the convergence of traditional Gothic ideas with the modern Gothic subculture and a more explicit exploration of the transgressive sexualities which had always been implicit in vampire fiction. Stephen King , while not a writer of multi-volume epics on vampires, has become

8722-419: The tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, "You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever." ( Carmilla , Chapter 4). When compared to other literary vampires of the 19th century, Carmilla

8820-564: The vampire as a being damned to suck the blood and destroy the life of its nearest relations: But first, on earth as vampire sent, Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent: Then ghostly 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 corpse: Thy victims ere they yet expire Shall know thy demon for their sire, As cursing thee, thou cursing them, Thy flowers are withered on

8918-403: The vampire's shape-shifting ability. 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 then can come and go at will. Stephen King 's novel Salem's Lot explored an unusual direction with this myth in having one of the protagonists revoke a vampire's invitation to a house; the vampire was forced to flee

9016-714: Was Sava Savanović , from a folklore-inspired novel, Ninety Years Later , by Milovan Glišić , first published in 1880. Serbian vampires—albeit depicted first in French (1839) and then Russian (1884)—also appear in Count Tolstoy 's novella The Family of the Vourdalak . Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published the short story “Manor” in 1885, about two sailors and lovers. When the older of the two, Manor, drowns at sea he returns to his lover Har each night to suck his blood and lay together. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) has been

9114-522: Was Byron's personal physician). This story provided the basis for The Vampyre (1819) by Polidori. Byron's own wild life became the model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven . According to A. Asbjorn Jon, "the choice of name [for Polidori's Lord Ruthven] is presumably linked to Lady Caroline Lamb 's earlier novel Glenarvon , where it was used for a rather ill disguised Byronesque character". An unauthorized sequel to Polidori's tale by Cyprien Bérard called Lord Ruthwen ou les Vampires (1820)

9212-546: Was a vampire, and carried those powers into her undeath), and Olivia Nightshade from The Nightshade Chronicles . Also, vampires from the Vampire Academy books, also known as the moroi, are skilled in elemental magic. Also, in the Twilight series, certain vampires appear to have special gifts like Edward (telepathy), Alice (visions), Bella (shielding), that are either supernatural or evolved from their own personalities like Victoria (survival instinct). The dhampir ,

9310-528: Was also influenced by Le Fanu's Carmilla . Le Fanu was Stoker's editor when Stoker was a theater critic in Dublin , Ireland. Like Le Fanu, Stoker created compelling female vampire characters such as Lucy Westenra and the Brides of Dracula . Stoker's vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing was a strong influence on subsequent vampire literature. Though Stoker's Count Dracula remained an iconic figure, especially in

9408-700: Was attributed to Charles Nodier . Nodier himself adapted "The Vampyre" into the first vampire stage melodrama, Le Vampire . Unlike Polidori's original story, Nodier's play was set in Scotland. This, in turn, was adapted by the English melodramatist James Planché as The Vampire; or, the Bride of the Isles (1820) at the Lyceum (then called the English Opera House), also set in Scotland. Planché introduced

9506-526: Was published – Margaret L. Carter's The Vampire in Literature. A Critical Bibliography (Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.: Umi Research Press). Many books based on vampires are still being published, including several continuing series. Paranormal romance , inspired by Anne Rice, but mostly dropping the open sexuality of her characters in favor of more conventional sexual roles, is a remarkable contemporary publishing phenomenon. Romances with handsome vampires as

9604-509: Was romantically involved with the Countess Karnstein before she died. Using his forefather's notes, he locates Mircalla's hidden tomb. An imperial commission exhumes the body of Mircalla. Immersed in blood, it seems to be breathing faintly, its heart beating, its eyes open. A stake is driven through its heart, and it gives a corresponding shriek; then, the head is struck off. The body and head are burned to ashes, which are thrown into

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