Indisputably the most famous Vampire story is Dracula. But how did we get to that point? In this volume we present a roll-call of classic authors including Robert Louis Stevenson, M R James, E F Benson, John William Polidori, Uriah Derrick D'Arcy and many others who short story by short story establish the building blocks of this horrific yet thrilling genre. Here all manner of characters and narratives weave together to bring a unique yet intricate account of the beginnings of this most troubling of literary genres.1 - Foundations of Fiction - Vampires - An Introduction 2 - Olalla - Part 1 by Robert Louis Stevenson 3 - Olalla - Part 2 by Robert Louis Stevenson 4 - The Room in the Tower by E F Benson5 - Count Magnus by M R James6 - The Vampire of Croglin Grange by Augustus Hare7 - The Horror of Abbot's Grange by Frederick Cowles8 - The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D'Arcy9 - The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet10 - Alymer Vance & The Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew11 - The Vampire by Jan Neruda12 - The Last of the Vampires by Phil Robinson13 - Vampirismus or Aurelia by E T A Hoffman14 - Mrs Amworth by E F Benson15 - The Sumach by Ulric Daubeny16 - For the Blood is the Life by F Marion Crawford17 - The Vampyre. A Tale - Part 1 by John William Polidori18 - The Vampyre. A Tale - Part 2 by John William Polidori19 - Wake Not the Dead - Part 1 by Ernst Raupach20 - Wake Not the Dead - Part 2 by Ernst Raupach
Jan Nepomuk Neruda (1834-1891) was born in Prague, Bohemia, the son of a small grocer. After studying philosophy and philology, he worked as a teacher until 1860, when he became a freelance journalist and writer.
'The Vampire' is a strange tale of a group of tourists visiting an idyllic spot outside Constantinople in the company of a charming but oddly sinister Greek artist who seems to be at pains to ensure nobody can look over his shoulder and see what he is sketching.
