The Tale of the Living Vampyre

A comprehensive study of the vampire in nineteenth-century literature. The nineteenth-century vampire has been inadequately studied until now, being usually investigated as a precursor to twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction. On the contrary, this book studies the vampire of the nineteenth century free of any reference to later developments, exploring instead key topics such as the origins of the vampire in Icelandic and other medieval European texts; issues of gender and sex; and, because the vampire is almost always treated solely as egotistical, maniacal, and animalistic, any instances of sympathy and mercy shown by nineteenth-century vampires. By looking at earlier cultural roots of the fictional monster, this book offers a fresh understanding of how, why, and where the myth of the vampire came into being.