Charles Nodier was one of the first populariser of the literary vampire story: Smarra, or the Demons of the Night(1821) is the most notable and horrific of his stories. Nodier also carried forward the French tradition of literary fairy tales, which he enriched with the fantastic extravagance of the romantics. The best of these half fairy and half fantasy tales is Trilby, or the imp of Argyll(1822), which is set in Scotland.
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The mysterious Lord Ruthwen travels to Venice and strikes again, killing the beautiful Bettina and torturing her lover, Leonti, who swears to avenge her. He joins vampire hunters Aubrey and Nadoor Ali to search for the elusive monster... Cyprien Berard's The Vampire Lord Ruthwen (1820) was the first sequel to continue John-William Polidori's 1819 ground-breaking story that had introduced the character of the handsome, but evil Vampire lord. Also drawing upon The Thousand and One Nights for inspiration, Berard weaves stories of mystical Venice, Arabian Nights and Vampire legends into one exotic and suspenseful tale of revenge against the Undead. "A significant stepping-stone in the evolution of the modern image of the vampire, foreshadowing the other major thread of subsequent vampire fiction: the seductive female vampire." Brian Stableford.
In the early 1800s, young British aristocrat Aubrey travels through Italy and Greece with the mercurial and fantastic Lord Ruthven. Later, when Ruthven returns from the dead to prey on his sister, Aubrey realizes that the enigmatic stranger is a vampire.
Stuart's study approaches the subject primarily from the viewpoint of literary criticism but also includes production history, providing the reader with a useful look at theatre practices. Additionally, insight is provided into the popular taste and imagination of different periods and cultures, as reflected in changing representations of the vampire, from the relative innocence of the Romantics to the evolving patterns of sadism, misogyny, and xenophobia of the end of the century. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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