From the earliest days of oral history to the present, the vampire myth persists among mankind's deeply-rooted fears. This encyclopedia, with entries ranging from "Abchanchu" to "Zmeus," includes nearly 600 different species of historical and mythological vampires, fully described and detailed.
Monsters and shape-shifters have always held a special fascination in mythologies, legends, and folklore the world over. From ancient customs to famous cases of beasts and vampires and their reflections in popular culture, 600 entries provide definitions, explanations, and lists of suggested further reading.
The Ultimate Collection of Vampire Facts and Fiction From Vlad the Impaler to Barnabas Collins to Edward Cullen to Dracula and Bill Compton, renowned religion expert and fearless vampire authority J. Gordon Melton, PhD takes the reader on a vast, alphabetic tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the blood-sucking undead. Digging deep into the lore, myths, pop culture, and reported realities of vampires and vampire legends from across the globe, The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead exposes everything about the blood thirsty predator. Death and immortality, sexual prowess and surrender, intimacy and alienation, rebellion and temptation. The allure of the vampire is eternal, and The Vampire Book explores it all. The historical, literary, mythological, biographical, and popular aspects of one of the world's most mesmerizing paranormal subject. This vast reference is an alphabetical tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the soul-sucking undead. In the first fully revised and updated edition in a decade, Dr. J. Gordon Melton (president of the American chapter of the Transylvania Society of Dracula) bites even deeper into vampire lore, myths, reported realities, and legends that come from all around the world. From Transylvania to plague-infested Europe to Nostradamus and from modern literature to movies and TV series, this exhaustive guide furnishes more than 500 essays to quench your thirst for facts, biographies, definitions, and more.
With over 2,000 entries in A-to-Z format,THE VAMPIRE ENCYCLOPEDIAis a one-stop reference for everything and anything to do with vampires, from books and films to the history of the vampire legend and ways to RESIST THESE IRRESISTIBLE CREATURES. The vampire is alive and flourishing in books, hit television shows, clubs, even comic books—there's no end in sight for the immortal ones!
When Darkness Reigns and the Full Moon Glows, Terror Emerges to Stalk the Unsuspecting… From lycanthropic creatures found on television and film such as Teen Wolf, Twilight, and True Blood to the earliest folklore of shape-shifting creatures, The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shapeshifting Beings is an eye-opening, blood-pounding tour through the ages of monsters with the most amazing camouflage capabilities—they hide among us! Along the way, you’ll land at the doorstep of creatures like hirsute mass-murderer Albert Fish, and Fritz Haarman, who slaughtered and ate his victims—selling the leftovers as steaks and roasts in his butcher shop—as well as visits to mythical shamans, sirens, and skin walkers. Covering 140,000 years of legend, mythology, and fact, The Werewolf Book provides hair-raising evidence of strange and obsessional behavior through the centuries. Learn the basics of becoming a werewolf and the intricacies of slaying the beast. A true homage to werewolves and other full moon beasts, it includes topics such as … • Bear, tiger, coyote, and other shape-shifting people • Classic and modern werewolf movies • Gargoyles, totem poles, and Internet depictions • Serial killers and sadistic rulers • Sorcery, spells, and talismans • Television shows, songs, and computer games Werewolf hunters and fans of all ages will appreciate the detailed section on slaying the beast, while potential victims will find the information on detecting and warding away the occasional wayward wolfman more to their immediate liking—if not need. With over 120 illustrations and photos this ultimate lycanthrope compendium is richly illustrated. The Werewolf Book's helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.
The UK's leading authority examines the myth and legend surrounding vampires. Using Bram Stoker's Dracula as a starting point - the folklore and the legend that Stoker drew on - there follows a discussion of Vlad the Impaler, Elizabeth Bathory, Bluebeard and the significance of bloodlust in ancient and medieval times.
An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.
The spellbinding classic that started it all, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author—the inspiration for the hit television series “A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago Tribune Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.