Vampires: A Bite-sized History

By Judyth A McLeod

A beautiful little pocket-sized feast of vampire lore, complete with blood-red ribbon and silver gilded page edges A pint-sized overview of the ever-mutating vampire, this book traces the phenomenon created by primal human fears of blood-sucking monsters. It delves into ancient vampiric beliefs including the Chinese hopping vampire Jiangshi and Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, as well as Gothic horrors from the late Middle Ages. The evolution of vampires in literature, film, and television is comprehensively covered. Literature includes the iconic Dracula tale, Stephen King's Salem's Lot; and the Twilight series; movies include Nosferatu, the first Hollywood take on vampires, and such modern films such as the Blade trilogy and New Moon; and TV shows include The Twilight Zone, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Murdoch Books
• Release date: Oct 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781742662572

Reviews for Vampires

[seldombites · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For the most part, this book is a fascinating and informative dive into the history of vampires and vampire-like creatures around the world. I was interested to learn just how far back in time vampire legends exist, and just how similar are the stories in vastly different societies. It is certainly enough to make you wonder.Most of this book is well written, if necessarily brief. Unfortunately I felt that the entire work is let down by the final chapters. When discussing the vampire in entertainment (books, TV, film), the author is presented with a golden opportunity to discuss how the portrayal of vampires has evolved over time and assess how this reflects the changing fears and attitudes of society. This opportunity was missed, however, as the final chapters degenerated into nothing more than a long, boring list of vampire novels, movies and TV shows.As it stands, I would recommend reading the book, but skip the final few chapters. Had the final chapters been handled properly, I would have given this book a perfect score.