The Rise of the Vampire by Erik Butler

by Erik Butler

Before Bella and Edward; Stefan and Damon Salvatore; and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter , there was Lestat and Louis, The Lost Boys , and Buffy Summers. Before True Blood and Let the Right One In , there was Dark Shadows and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles . And then there is the most prominent of them Dracula, immortalized by Bram Stoker in 1897. Whether they’re evil, bloodsucking monsters or sparkling like diamonds in the sunlight, vampires have been capturing our imagination since their modest beginnings in the rustic fantasies of southeastern Europe in the early eighteenth century. Today, they’re everywhere, appearing even in movies in Japan and Korea and in reggae music in Jamaica and South Africa. Why have vampires gone viral in recent years? In The Rise of the Vampire , Erik Butler seeks to explain our enduring fascination with the creatures of the night. Exploring why a being of humble origins has achieved success of such monstrous proportions, Butler considers the vampire in myth, literature, film, journalism, political cartoons, music, television, and video games. He describes how and why they have come to give expression to the darker side of human life—though vampires evoke age-old mystery, they also embody many of the uncertainties of the modern world. Butler also ponders the role global markets and digital technology have played in making vampires a worldwide phenomenon. Whether you’re a fan of classic vampire tales or new additions to the mythology, The Rise of the Vampire is a fascinating look at our collective obsession with the undead.

Genres: Nonfiction, Vampires, Monsters, Horror

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Sandra Gustafsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish it. It was very interesting and well written, but as soon as I got the point I got bored.

[Steev Hise · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some interesting information in this book about the history of vampire stories, and some of the detailed analyses of the older and more contemporary books and films and tv is insightful. However, I was a little underwhelmed that there wasn't a more deep exploration of the phenomenon, in other words, the sociology of vampire story consumption, rather than what seems to be almost exclusively a textual analysis. The tone of the writing is also a little scattered. The author seems to be unsure whether he's writing a very cold, academic piece of literary criticism or a more pop-culture-oriented, humorous and snarky jaunt around an interesting fad. If he was a more skilled essayist I think he could succeed at the latter. Or maybe it's just not the book I was hoping for!

[Levi Hermus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rise of the Vampire is an extremely fascinating and well-written book. It will definitely draw you in from the start, regardless of being a vampire fan or not. Butler will keep you engaged with his bouts of humor, and wide range of knowledge on such a peculiar topic. Definitely worth the read!

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10; an interesting overview of the history of vampires that would have been well served by going into more depth; but did a good job for what it was and gave me plenty to think about.

[mia-esme 𓇗 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Lest we forget, vampirism is a curse, a state of permanent alienation.”

butler has written a highly engaging and in depth study of vampiric media.

[Daniel R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An academic deep dive that maps out the various archetypal angles of the literary vampire from various sociological lenses.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished reading Erik Butler's The Rise of the Vampire (London: Reaktion Books, 2013). Butler's book is a study of the vampire in art, literature and film. He suggests the vampire arose from a place between the rise of the West and the East and that it became a symbol of peasant resistance. There are a lot of interesting ideas in this short book, that are never really fleshed out. His premise about the rise of the vampire had me thinking about the vampire as a symbol for all that lays beneath modernism. The vampire is in essence a product of the modern, developed on the borders of empire and rising nation-states. It is at once a symbol of the underbelly of the modern, of desire, death, eros, thanatos and power.

He also has an interesting take also on the rise of the zombie, the working-class monster to the vampire's aristocrat.

"The American adventurer William Seabrook popularized the zombie in an account of Haitian culture and religious practice, The Magic Island (1929). The first modern nation to be ruled by black people, Haiti became a sovereign state in an eighteenth-century rebellion, when slaves kicked out their European masters. In 1915, the United States invaded and took over. Foreign companies, notably the Haitian-American Sugar Company (HASCO), reduced the islanders to economic slavery. Seabrook's book gave North Americans a chance to look at the dark side of what their country's spirit of enterprise had wrought." 90

"Despite modest beginnings in rustic fantasy at the outer limits of Europe, vampires rapidly spread and took over the Western imagination. Only a few years after the first account was made of their existence, the undead had taken up residence in England, France and Germany, where the busy pens of academicians, journalists and theologians introduced them to an international public. By the early nineteenth century, everyone had heard of vampires." 135

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written exploration of the emergence of the vampire in fiction, excellently surveying both the Victorian era genre-classics, the films of the 20s and 30s, and some stand-out contemporary authors such as Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer. A quick, but insightful read, useful for anyone interested in the intersections between literature, folklore, and popular culture in modern Europe and the United States. Another perk of the book are its illustrations and photographs reproduced from the books and movies Butler discusses. I'd definitely recommend it!

[Rhonda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why does this book exist? It doesn't say anything that hasn't already been said in more detail and with more depth. Oh, and, dear author, *The Hunger* was a book before it was a 80s movie. I'm just saying.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spans their folktale origins to current media saturation--scholarly theory as to of why the once vile vampires have been romanticized to popularity.

[Ruby Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that this book was somewhat lacking. Butler's knowledge is extremely strong in some areas (Carmilla, Lord Ruthven etc), but simplistic and surface level in others. His analysis of vampirism and queer culture was extremely stunted, and he didn't seem to get into the long-established tradition of using vampires as a literary tool to explore sexual fluidity, freedom and early homosexuality. Obviously this was touched on, but not explored as in-depth as it could have been. Also, the authors knowledge on goth culture is extremely surface-level and superficial. Overall, a decent summary with some extremely solid & interesting historical basis, but could have been strongly improved on a few important topics.