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Vampire in Literature: Vlad Dracula
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Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in poetry, before becoming the stock figure of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), and later popularised with the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847). Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a lesbian vampire, Carmilla (1872) has been very influential, though the masterpiece of the genre is Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Over the years, vampire stories have diversified into areas of crime, fantasy, science fiction or even chick-lit. As well as the typical fanged revenants, newer representations include aliens and even plants with vampiric abilities. Others feed on energy rather than blood.
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Like so many, to them, the vampire in literature was divided strictly into two camps: Stoker and Rice, as if no other author had ever penned a vampire story in their life. Adler had no patience for that. Stoker's Dracula was annoying - it was the tale of Jonathan and Mina Harker. And Jonathan and Mina Harker were wusses. Rice's novels were a little better, as she had at least made the vampire into a sympathetic and engaging character instead of the nemesis, but still, but still - as she continued to weave the tale throughout the novels, her ball of yarn had long since dropped out of the trunk of a speeding car. What of Matheson?
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The real emergence of the vampire into common knowledge came with its appearance in the pages of fiction. The 1819 novel Vampyre - by Doctor John Polidori - Lord Byron's physician - was the first vampire of British fiction, then came Varney the Vampire written by Thomas Pecket Prest in 1847, as a series of Penny Dreadfuls, and then Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897. Dracula - originally entitled The Undead - was based on the bloodthirsty Vlad VI, known as 'Vlad the Impaler' for his gruesome penchant of impaling his enemies on sharpened spikes. Vlad ruled in Transylvania during the 15th century.
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Vampires were popularized by the British author Bram Stoker with his story of Count Dracula, a Transylvanian vampire, in 1897. The story was probably based on Vlad Tepes, a medieval character of exceptional bloodthirst. He supposedly impaled his enemies (hence his nickname Vlad The Impaler) and cut off their heads. He ruled Walachia as Vlad III in the 15th century, which is now part of Romania. He signed his letters with Vlad Dracula, which can be translated as Vlad, son of the dragon or son of the devil. His father was called "Dracul" because he had a dragon depicted on his coat of arms.
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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 a wolf, bat, dust and fog. He can ... crawl up and down the vertical external walls of his castle, in the manner of a lizard. One very famous trait Stoker added is the inability to be seen in mirrors, which is not found in traditional Eastern European folklore. Dracula also had protruding teeth, though was preceded in this by Varney the Vampire. In contrast, Carmilla had no fangs.
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In "Dracula", Lucy Westenra, the King Vampire's first pupil in the new World is seen creeping about town as the "Bloofer Lady" and carries home babies on which to feast. Universal Picture's first sequal to "Dracula", "Dracula's Daughter, has a heroine tempted by both a male doctor and a young girl who works as her artist's model. Anne rice's book, Interview with the Vampire", revolves around the seemingly platonic but latently homosexual obsessions of it's principal main characters Lestat and Armand for Louis, and of Louis and Letast's blatant pedophilia toward the tiny five/hundred year old protégé, Claudia.
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Vlad Dracula