Description

A comprehensive anthology of vampires in literature, from Dracula to Twilight.

Christopher Frayling has spent 50 years exploring the history of one of the most enduring figures in the history of mass culture – the vampire. Vampyres is a comprehensive illustrated history of vampires in literature, from the folklore of Eastern Europe to the Romantics and beyond. Frayling recounts the most significant moments in Gothic history, while extracts from a huge range of sources – including Bram Stoker’s detailed research notes for Dracula, penny-dreadfuls and Angela Carter’s The Lady of the House of Love, are contextualized and analysed.

This revised and expanded edition brings Vampyres up to date with 21st-century vampire literature, including new text extracts, commentary and a revised introduction. Christopher Frayling also explores the development of the vampire in the visual arts, with illustrations ranging from 17th-century prints to 21st-century film stills, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the vampire from popular press to fine art and, finally, to film.

Publisher Review

'A genuine contribution to vampire studies' - John Carey, The Sunday Times 'The myth is endlessly adaptable, it will fit in with any culture and its preoccupations. It haunts the European imagination . . . If you care to know in great detail how Bram Stoker put Dracula together - what sources he consulted, what libraries he visited - this is the book for you' - Hilary Mantel, Daily Telegraph 'A very Baedeker of vampirism' - Observer 'A capacious book dripping with suspense and replete with horror' - Financial Times 'An admirable selection of 19th-century vampire stories in an anthology that shows how blood-soaked and fertile was the soil from which Bram Stoker's marvellous Dracula sprang in 1897' - Independent 'Frayling's introduction is an outstanding piece of literary history: he has exhumed all kinds of quaint and curious lore with the indefatigable scholarly diligence of a Van Helsing, and his account of what he found among the dead men is perceptive, absorbing and witty . . . Vampyres certainly has the power to grip and enlighten' - Kevin Jackson, Independent on Sunday