Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories, The edited Leslie Shepard

"Ever since Bram Stoker's spine-chilling Dracula revived an ancient superstition in the nineteenth century, the vampire theme has proliferated in novels, plays and films.

With the discovery of a real prototype Dracula in the person of Vlad Tepes in fifteenth-century Transylvania, popular interest in vampires has increased enormously. Dracula has been kept in print by many publishers in many languages; and there has been an ever-growing demand for all those long out-of-print vampire stories that thrilled and horified other generations.

Here, for the first time, we have assembled the all-time greats of vampire fiction in one volume, ranging from Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla through Bram Stoker's hair-raising Dracula's Guest and Guy de Maupassant's Le Horla to Victor Roman's Four Wooden Stakes, a weird thriller that revived the whole paraphernalia of traditional vampire lore -- an old house, a family crypt, and no fewer than four vampires.

From earliest times, vampires have been reported in many cultures throughout the world -- Babylonia, China, India and Europe. Folk tales and legends perpetuated this gruesome concept into comparatively modern times, when talented writers took over from traditional tellers of tales and wove their own chilling fantasies around the basic idea.

It is notable that today's revival of vampire literature coincides with the escalation of violence and terrorism in everyday life and the new wave of witchcraft and black magic. Self-declared vampires are now on the loose again.

The vampire theme has special relevance to problems of modern life. The stories in this book may be read as thrilling entertainment or as symbols of a larger conflict in the soul of the individual and organization of society." (from the book)

Order Info: ISBN 0806505656, Citadel Press, 1977, 1997 (unavailable, 1977 edition shown)

Note: This is the same book as Classic Vampire Stories