Vampires: First Blood Volume II: The Vampire Ladies

by James Grant Goldin, Bram Stoker, J. Sheridan Le Fanu

The literary evolution of the female vampire begins with the legendary LILITH...but is she a cursed monster, or a symbol of the rebellious, independent woman? While the male vampire has gone from monster to anti-hero to dream boyfriend, the path of his sister in blood has been more complex and mysterious. James Grant Goldin presents a curated anthology of the original texts, some freshly translated, that trace the evolution of the vampire lady through the end of the 19th century. In this anthology, there are, to be sure, monsters--VESPERTILIA of "A Mystery of the Campagna," ONEIZA of "Thalaba the Destroyer" and BRUNHILDE of "Wake Not The Dead"--but there are also vampire women in love, like CLARIMONDE, the airborne ALICE of Turgenev's "Phantoms," or the lesbian CARMILLA. There are vampires seeking justice or vengeance, like THE LADY BRIGHT. And there are characters like CLARA CROFTON or ALINSKA, who are both predators and victims. VAMPIRES: FIRST BLOOD VOLUME II - THE VAMPIRE LADIES collects the original adventures of the daughters of darkness who returned from the dead to pit their supernatural powers against the entrenched forces of patriarchy. This anthology comes complete with introductory notes and detailed glossaries to make these surprisingly contemporary stories come alive for a new generation.

Genres: Vampires

395 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 21, 2019

About the author

I live by the sea with my wife and child. When not writing books, I write and direct nonfiction television; previous careers have included media training, political consulting, dramatic TV writing, and book publicity.

Reviews

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection a bit less than the Lords collection, mostly because I had read most of these before and a lot of them were poems. As usual, I gave a small description for each bit.

Lilith segment: boring biblical description, barely vampiric

The Bride of Corinth- Johann Wolfgang Bon Goethe: bit of a boring poem

excerpt from Thalaba the Destroyer- Robert Southey: Thalaba fights a doppelganger monster of a dead woman

Wake Not The Dead- Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach: Local Loser Walter insists he bring back his first wife from the dead despite having a second wife with kids. So she eats his kids! Go Brunhilda! (she gets killed in the end of course)

Excerpt from The Vampire or, The Virgin of Hungary- Étienne léon de Lamothe Lagnon: shes not even a. vampire shes a ghooooul

Excerpt from The Vampire Bride- Henry Thomas Liddel: facts about the author are more interesting than the poem (his cousin inspired Alice in Alice in Wonderland and his poem may be the first to trace bats to vampires)

*Clarimonde, or The Dead in Love- Théophile Gautier: My favourite. Beautifully written and sexy, a priest falls victim to a hot babe who lures him out of his house and she sucks him. 10/10

The Vampire- James Clerk Maxwell: another poem about a guy fending off a lady vamp. what are you, gay?

Various Varney the Vampire excerpts ft. Clara Crofton- I refuse to read any more Varney than I need to

Phantoms- Ivan Turgenev: already read this!!

Carmilla- Sheridan Lefanu: already read this!!

A Mystery of the Campagna- Von Degen (Anne Crawford, Baroness von Rabe): Guy just barges into a house to live in it to write an opera and becomes victim to a vamp! karma!!

Vespertilla- Rosamund Marriot Watson: another poem, these all sort of blur together for me

the Vampire- Rudyard Kipling: another poem, but this one called man a FOOL so thats funny (women who use men for money are vampires, boooring)

Dracula's Guest- Bram Stoker: already read this!!

[Varia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of pre-Dracula stories about female vampires. They vary in quality naturally but the in-between commentary on the works as well as the glossaries of terms were very useful.