The Vampire in Nineteenth-Century Literature

Against the social and economic upheavals that characterized the nineteenth century, the border-bending nosferatu embodied the periods fears as well as its forbidden desires. This volume looks at both the range among and legacy of vampires in the nineteenth century, including race, culture, social upheaval, gender and sexuality, new knowledge and technology. The figure increased in popularity throughout the century and reached its climax in Dracula (1897), the most famous story of bloodsuckers. This book includes chapters on Bram Stokers iconic novel, as well as touchstone texts like John William Polidoris The Vampyre (1819) and Sheridan Le Fanus Carmilla (1872), but it also focuses on the many Other vampire stories of the period. Topics discussed include: the long-war veteran and aristocratic vampire in Varney; the vampire as addict in fiction by George MacDonald; time discipline in Eric Stenbocks Studies of Death; fragile female vampires in works by Eliza Lynn Linton; the gender and sexual contract in Mary Elizabeth Braddons Good Lady Ducayne; cultural appropriation in Richard Burtons Vikram and the Vampire; as well as Caribbean vampires and the racialized Other in Florence Marryats The Blood of the Vampire. While drawing attention to oft-overlooked stories, this study ultimately highlights the vampire as a cultural shape-shifter whose role as Other tells us much about Victorian culture and readers fears or desires.