Books in the Vampires: First Blood series

Who are the literary ancestors of Dracula? How did the classic vampire--the tall, dark, elegant aristocrat with an endless life and an unquenchable thirst for blood--become a mass-media star? James Grant Goldin presents a curated anthology of the original texts, some freshly translated, that trace the evolution of the vampire lord in the 18th and 19th centuries. Newspaper accounts of "real" vampires in the Austro-Hungarian Empire bring word of a new kind of monster to England, France, and Germany in the 1700s. Poets experiment with the vampire, often emphasizing sexual undercurrents ignored or glossed over in official reports. In the early 1800s, George Gordon, Lord Byron, provides the template for all male vampires to come: a brooding aristocrat, irresistibly attractive but cursed to bring doom to those around him. After the Byronesque Lord Ruthven in John Polidori's seminal "The Vampyre: A Tale," almost all vampires will be literal aristocrats -- a metamorphosis from the bloodsucking peasants of the 18th century. A secret society of vampires hold elegant balls in the heart of Moscow, Sir Francis Varney stalks an English country house in the early Victorian Age, and the sexy Carpathian Count Kostaki menaces a beautiful woman half a century before Bram Stoker's "Dracula."  VAMPIRES: FIRST BLOOD VOLUME I - THE VAMPIRE LORDS collects the original adventures of the nosferatu who set the stage for Dracula, Barnabas, Lestat, and Edward -- bringing them out of the dark shadows and back to the attention of 21st century readers, complete with introductory notes and detailed glossaries to make these stories of the undead come alive for a new generation."Arnold Paul" by Calmet and others"The Vampire" by Ossenfelder"The Vampyre" by Stagg"The Burial: A Fragment" by Byron"The Vampyre" by Polidori"The Family of the Vourdalak" by Tolstoy"Ghoul" (excerpt) by Tolstoy"Varney the Vampyre" (excerpts) by Rymer"The Pale Lady" by Dumas and Bocage 

The literary evolution of the female vampire begins with the legendary LILITH...but is she a cursed monster, or a symbol of the rebellious, independent woman? While the male vampire has gone from monster to anti-hero to dream boyfriend, the path of his sister in blood has been more complex and mysterious. James Grant Goldin presents a curated anthology of the original texts, some freshly translated, that trace the evolution of the vampire lady through the end of the 19th century. In this anthology, there are, to be sure, monsters--VESPERTILIA of "A Mystery of the Campagna," ONEIZA of "Thalaba the Destroyer" and BRUNHILDE of "Wake Not The Dead"--but there are also vampire women in love, like CLARIMONDE, the airborne ALICE of Turgenev's "Phantoms," or the lesbian CARMILLA. There are vampires seeking justice or vengeance, like THE LADY BRIGHT. And there are characters like CLARA CROFTON or ALINSKA, who are both predators and victims.  VAMPIRES: FIRST BLOOD VOLUME II - THE VAMPIRE LADIES collects the original adventures of the daughters of darkness who returned from the dead to pit their supernatural powers against the entrenched forces of patriarchy.   This anthology comes complete with introductory notes and detailed glossaries to make these surprisingly contemporary stories come alive for a new generationLilith, from "The Alphabet of Ben Sira"The Bride of Corinth, by GoetheOneiza, from Southey's "Thalaba the Destroyer"Brunhilda, from Raupach's "Wake Not the Dead"Alinska, from Lamothe-Langon's "The Vampire, or the Virgin of Hungary"The Vampire Bride, by LiddellClarimonde, from Gautier's "The Dead in Love"The Lady Bright, from Maxwell's "The Vampire"Clara Crofton, from Rymer's "Varney the Vampyre"Alice, from Turgenev's "Phantoms"Vespertilia, from Crawford's "A Mystery of the Campagna" and Watson's "Vespertilia"The Woman Who Did Not Care, from Kipling's "A Fool There Was"Countess Dolingen, from Stoker's "Dracula's Guest"