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Summary
Summary
In blood-soaked lore handed down the centuries, the vampire is a monster of endless fascination: from Bram Stoker's Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer , this seductive lover of blood haunts popular culture and inhabits our darkest imaginings. The cultural history of the vampire is a rich and varied tale that is now ably documented in From Demons to Dracula , a compelling study of the vampire myth that reveals why this creature of the undead fascinates us so.
Beresford's chronicle roams from the mountains of Eastern Europe to the foggy streets of Victorian England to Hollywood, as he investigates the portrayal of the vampire in history, literature, and art. Opening with the original Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, and his status as a national hero in Romania, he endeavors to winnow out truths from the complex legend and folklore. From Demons to Dracula tracks the evolution of the vampire as an icon and supernatural creature, drawing on classical Greek and Roman myths, witch trials and medieval plagues, Gothic literature, and even contemporary works such as Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian . Beresford also looks at the widespread impact of screen vampires from television shows, classic movies starring Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, and more recent films such as Underworld and Blade . Whether as a demon of the underworld or a light-fearing hunter of humans, the vampire has endured through the centuries, the book reveals, as powerfully symbolic figure for human concerns with life, death, and the afterlife.
A wide-ranging and engrossing chronicle, From Demons to Dracula casts this blood-thirsty nightstalker as a remarkably complex and telling totem of our nightmares, real and imagined.
Author Notes
Matthew Beresford is a writer and archaeologist based in Bolsover, Derbyshire
Reviews (1)
Library Journal Review
Beresford's short history of the evolution of the vampire myth from neolithic times to today starts disappointingly and then runs downhill. He argues that the fear of vampires stretches back into prehistory and that in its modern form it dates to the 18th and 19th centuries and culminates in the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). For the most part, Beresford reminds us, people don't take vampires seriously today: except among a fringe culture, they are no longer objects of terror but rather of fun. Often, however, it's difficult to judge Beresford's claims: he fails to present the evidence and reasoning that support his conclusions, and his observations often are ingenuous. The chapter on the search for the Highgate Vampire in London (1960s through 1990s) is especially limp. The author pulls in Ernest Jones on nightmares and Richard Dawkins on our genetic inheritance in the concluding chapter, but he doesn't really conclude much of anything. Two of Beresford's principal sources, 1920s occultist Montague Summers and present-day "vampire hunter" Sean Manchester, are highly suspect. It is difficult to see who the audience is for this book. Not recommended.-David Keymer, Modesto, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 7 |
| 1 The Ancient World: Origins of the Vampire | p. 19 |
| 2 The Vampire in Prehistory: Early Ideas on Death and Burial | p. 31 |
| 3 Historical Roots: The Vampire in the Middle Ages | p. 41 |
| 4 Vampiric Haunts #1: Transylvania, Romania | p. 53 |
| 5 The Historical Dracula: Vlad 111 Tepes | p. 77 |
| 6 From Myth to Reality: The Vampire of Folklore | p. 99 |
| 7 A Fiend is Born: The Vampire in Literature | p. 115 |
| 8 Vampiric Haunts #2: Whitby, North Yorkshire, England | p. 129 |
| 9 Phantasmagoria: The Modern Vampire | p. 140 |
| 10 Vampiric Haunts #3: Highgate Cemetery, London, England | p. 175 |
| Conclusion: A Dark Reflection of Human Society? | p. 193 |
| Appendix | p. 202 |
| References | p. 210 |
| Select Bibliography | p. 225 |
| Websites and Media | p. 228 |
| Acknowledgements | p. 229 |
| Photo Acknowledgements | p. 231 |
| Index | p. 232 |