Editing Vampire (section)

=== Literature ===
{{main|Vampire literature}}
[[File:Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover from one of the original serialized editions of ''[[Varney the Vampire]]''|alt=See caption]]
The vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as ''The Vampire'' (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, ''[[Lenore (ballad)|Lenore]]'' (1773) by [[Gottfried August Bürger]], ''Die Braut von Corinth'' (''The Bride of Corinth'') (1797) by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Robert Southey]]'s ''Thalaba the Destroyer'' (1801), [[John Stagg (poet)|John Stagg]]'s "The Vampyre" (1810), [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s [[Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson|"The Spectral Horseman"]] (1810) ("Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore") and "Ballad" in ''[[St. Irvyne]]'' (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s unfinished ''[[Christabel (poem)|Christabel]]'' and [[Lord Byron]]'s ''[[The Giaour]]''.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=114–115}}

Byron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: "The Vampyre" (1819). This was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, [[John Polidori]], who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, "[[Fragment of a Novel]]" (1819), also known as "The Burial: A Fragment".{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}}<ref name="Christopher"/> Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover [[Lady Caroline Lamb]] in her unflattering ''roman-a-clef'' ''Glenarvon'' (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist [[Lord Ruthven (vampire)|Lord Ruthven]]. ''The Vampyre'' was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=37–38}}

''[[Varney the Vampire]]'' was a popular mid-[[Victorian era]] [[gothic horror]] story by [[James Malcolm Rymer]] and [[Thomas Peckett Prest]], which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as ''[[penny dreadful]]s'' because of their low price and gruesome contents.<ref name=":1"/> Published in book form in 1847, the story runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=38–39}} Another important addition to the genre was [[Sheridan Le Fanu]]'s [[lesbian vampire]] story ''[[Carmilla]]'' (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampiress Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|pp=40–41}}

[[File:Carmilla.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Carmilla]]'' by [[Sheridan Le Fanu]], illustrated by [[D. H. Friston]], 1872|alt=A person is lying in a bed while another person is reaching on the bed towards them.]]

No effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897).{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=43}} Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] Europe where [[tuberculosis]] and [[syphilis]] were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire.<ref name=":1"/>

Drawing on past works such as ''The Vampyre'' and ''Carmilla'', Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as ''The Land Beyond the Forest'' (1888) by [[Emily Gerard]] and other books about [[Transylvania]] and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of [[Vlad Țepeș]], the "real-life Dracula", and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as "[[Dracula's Guest]]".{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=82–85}}

The latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics as well as a renewed interest in the subject in books. The first of these was Gothic romance writer [[Marilyn Ross]]'s ''[[Barnabas Collins]]'' series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series ''[[Dark Shadows]]''. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic [[tragic hero]]es rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular ''[[Vampire Chronicles]]'' (1976–2003),{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=205}} and [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s  [[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]] series (2005–2008).<ref name="slate">{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2205143/|title=I Vant To Upend Your Expectations: Why film vampires always break all the vampire rules|last=Beam|first=Christopher|date=20 November 2008|website=Slate Magazine|access-date=17 July 2009|archive-date=16 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916173859/http://www.slate.com/id/2205143/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 2006 [[Peter Watts (author)|Peter Watts]]'s novel ''[[Blindsight (Watts novel)|Blindsight]]'', vampires are depicted as a subspecies of [[homo sapiens]] that predated on humanity until the dawn of civilization. The various supernatural characteristics and abilities traditionally assigned to vampires by folklore are justified on naturalistic and scientific basis.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Galaxy |first=Geek's Guide to the |title='Blindsight' Is the Epitome of Science Fiction Horror |url=https://www.wired.com/2023/10/geeks-guide-peter-watts/ |access-date=2024-06-30 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028 |archive-date=30 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240630080300/https://www.wired.com/2023/10/geeks-guide-peter-watts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>