For centuries, the legends and myths of vampires have permeated various cultures around the world. In folklore, frequently vampires visited their loved ones, and caused evil doings or deaths in the places they inhabited when they were alive. The romance of the vampire lies in his total isolation––he is the tragic character of the fallen angel, one with unimaginable power. Yet, his fatal weakness makes him vulnerable. In this mesmerizing book, readers learn about the origins of vampires and their various forms across the ancient world, Europe, America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. Vlad Tepes, the land of Transylvania, and Dracula are engagingly introduced. The volume also describes how vampires have been featured in books and film.

A thrilling treasury of vampire lore! Since the seventeenth century, people have been frightened, mesmerized, and fascinated by the terrifying tales of vampires. In this book, you'll uncover the history and mystery behind these bloodthirsty monsters with folklore, mythology, and poetry from every tradition in the world. From the Bosnian Lampir, whose disease-ridden corpse spread infection and death throughout villages, to Bram Stoker's charming Dracula, who helped define modern-day vampires, the wicked stories surrounding these nocturnal beings are sure to captivate anyone who has ever wondered about these shadow-loving creatures. Whether you're interested in exploring the culture of vampires or just want to learn more about their supernatural abilities, you'll discover dozens of compelling tales, historical accounts, and haunting legends that shed some light on these sinister beings. Complete with detailed illustrations, Vampires reveals the dark allure and gruesome power of these creatures of the night.

Delves into the myths, legends, literature, and history surrounding that ever-frightening and yet strangely seductive creature, the vampire.

While vampire stories have been part of popular culture since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has been in recent decades that they have become a central part of American culture. Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture looks at how vampire stories -- from Bram Stoker's Dracula to Blacula, from Bela Lugosi's films to Love at First Bite -- have become part of our ongoing debate about what it means to be human. William Patrick Day looks at how writers and filmmakers as diverse as Anne Rice and Andy Warhol present the vampire as an archetype of human identity, as well as how many post-modern vampire stories reflect our fear and attraction to stories of addiction and violence. He argues that contemporary stories use the character of Dracula to explore modern values, and that stories of vampire slayers, such as the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, integrate current feminist ideas and the image of the Vietnam veteran into a new heroic version of the vampire story.

Perhaps more than any region, the American South is haunted by the mythology of the vampire, returned from the dead to drain life from the living.

Even before Bram Stoker immortalized Transylvania as the homeland of his fictional Count Dracula, the figure of the vampire was inextricably tied to Eastern Europe in the popular imagination. Drawing on a wealth of heretofore neglected sources, this book offers a fascinating account of how vampires—whose various incarnations originally emerged from the folk traditions of societies throughout the world—became identified with such a specific region. It demonstrates that the modern conception of the vampire was born in the crucible of the Enlightenment, embodying a mysterious, Eastern “otherness” that stood opposed to Western rationality.

Surveys centuries of folklore about vampires and offers a scientific explanation for the origins of the legends.