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Vampires: A Bite-sized History
A beautiful little pocket-sized feast of vampire lore, complete with blood-red ribbon and silver gilded page edges A pint-sized overview of the ever-mutating vampire, this book traces the phenomenon created by primal human fears of blood-sucking monsters. It delves into ancient vampiric beliefs including the Chinese hopping vampire Jiangshi and Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, as well as Gothic horrors from the late Middle Ages. The evolution of vampires in literature, film, and television is comprehensively covered. Literature includes the iconic Dracula tale, Stephen King's Salem's Lot ; and the Twilight series; movies include Nosferatu , the first Hollywood take on vampires, and such modern films such as the Blade trilogy and New Moon ; and TV shows include The Twilight Zone , True Blood , and The Vampire Diaries .
240 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
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32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 21, 2013
For the most part, this book is a fascinating and informative dive into the history of vampires and vampire-like creatures around the world. I was interested to learn just how far back in time vampire legends exist, and just how similar are the stories in vastly different societies. It is certainly enough to make you wonder.
Most of this book is well written, if necessarily brief. Unfortunately I felt that the entire work is let down by the final chapters. When discussing the vampire in entertainment (books, TV, film), the author is presented with a golden opportunity to discuss how the portrayal of vampires has evolved over time and assess how this reflects the changing fears and attitudes of society. This opportunity was missed, however, as the final chapters degenerated into nothing more than a long, boring list of vampire novels, movies and TV shows.
As it stands, I would recommend reading the book, but skip the final few chapters. Had the final chapters been handled properly, I would have given this book a perfect score.
Most of this book is well written, if necessarily brief. Unfortunately I felt that the entire work is let down by the final chapters. When discussing the vampire in entertainment (books, TV, film), the author is presented with a golden opportunity to discuss how the portrayal of vampires has evolved over time and assess how this reflects the changing fears and attitudes of society. This opportunity was missed, however, as the final chapters degenerated into nothing more than a long, boring list of vampire novels, movies and TV shows.
As it stands, I would recommend reading the book, but skip the final few chapters. Had the final chapters been handled properly, I would have given this book a perfect score.
March 16, 2017
Occasionally repetitious but serves its purpose as a decent introduction. The design is pretty and the pocket size is handy.
The media section (literature, film, and television) was horribly superficial, though. The history section and the all ghastly stories of creepy creatures was ok, but there was no effort whatsoever with the latter part of the book. Occasionally the author recounted whole plots with nothing else to say, in addition to merely listing stuff. For example, with Bram Stoker's Dracula she did nothing else than tell the plot from start to finish and introduce Bram Stoker. No analysis on its influence, nothing. Oh, and why the hell would you introduce Hitchcock when he has nothing to do with vampires? Just because you talk about horror films, it's not necessary to bring him up because you're talking about a particular genre that he didn't have a direct influence on.
There were also a few inaccuracies that made me cringe. McLeod constantly misspells names, which is embarrassing since you can check them from Google in a few seconds. Jonathan Harper, Gerald Butler, Georges Méllès etc.? No. Just - no. Second, Carl Theodor Dreyer is not Swedish but Danish. These things are very tiny, but they made me a bit paranoid about the rest of the information I wasn't so familiar with. How can I be sure she wasn't more careful with the rest of it?
Unfortunately, this seems like a book that was hashed together in a hurry to cash in on the newer vampire phenomenon.
The media section (literature, film, and television) was horribly superficial, though. The history section and the all ghastly stories of creepy creatures was ok, but there was no effort whatsoever with the latter part of the book. Occasionally the author recounted whole plots with nothing else to say, in addition to merely listing stuff. For example, with Bram Stoker's Dracula she did nothing else than tell the plot from start to finish and introduce Bram Stoker. No analysis on its influence, nothing. Oh, and why the hell would you introduce Hitchcock when he has nothing to do with vampires? Just because you talk about horror films, it's not necessary to bring him up because you're talking about a particular genre that he didn't have a direct influence on.
There were also a few inaccuracies that made me cringe. McLeod constantly misspells names, which is embarrassing since you can check them from Google in a few seconds. Jonathan Harper, Gerald Butler, Georges Méllès etc.? No. Just - no. Second, Carl Theodor Dreyer is not Swedish but Danish. These things are very tiny, but they made me a bit paranoid about the rest of the information I wasn't so familiar with. How can I be sure she wasn't more careful with the rest of it?
Unfortunately, this seems like a book that was hashed together in a hurry to cash in on the newer vampire phenomenon.
January 14, 2017
This books looks amazing - silver lined pages, great illustrations, and a pocket size format. Which means it is a shallow-reader friendly material. Which means it could attract younger readers. So, parents, who want your kids to start reading something more mature than Twilight, take notice of this.
Apart from the well-chosen design, this book contains just the right amount of information. Sure, you can guess that given the format it won't overflow with data but it gives you the basics. The author took the vampire myth chronologically and briefly described as different cultures all over the world dealt with it. Basically the most important vampire "incidents" are mentioned in the book.
And apart from the historic events the book is spiced up by short chapter on pretty much anything from how to recognize a vampire or how to deal with it to the vampire brides theme.
I really like the book because it gives a very short yet interesting listing of all the most important and influential vampire myths and themes in different cultures from ancient times to modern movie-oriented era.
I believe the book is great for someone who has no prior knowledge of the vampire myth in real world (fiction doesn't count, this is about the real origins) and wants to get a nice and complete view on history of this phenomenon without being bored to death.
Apart from the well-chosen design, this book contains just the right amount of information. Sure, you can guess that given the format it won't overflow with data but it gives you the basics. The author took the vampire myth chronologically and briefly described as different cultures all over the world dealt with it. Basically the most important vampire "incidents" are mentioned in the book.
And apart from the historic events the book is spiced up by short chapter on pretty much anything from how to recognize a vampire or how to deal with it to the vampire brides theme.
I really like the book because it gives a very short yet interesting listing of all the most important and influential vampire myths and themes in different cultures from ancient times to modern movie-oriented era.
I believe the book is great for someone who has no prior knowledge of the vampire myth in real world (fiction doesn't count, this is about the real origins) and wants to get a nice and complete view on history of this phenomenon without being bored to death.
March 13, 2011
This little book offers a brief (as the title implies) summary on both the vampire myth in both the movie, literary, and tv genre. It's up to date with its references to both the Twilight, Underworld and True Blood phenomena.
It is quickly read, and it gives a brief access as to why humanity has been fascinated by this creature since, almost since the dawn of time.
However, brief as this book may be, it fails in providing new angles and add new material as to why the vampire continues to fascinate and repel us, as it has done for millennia.
On a side note, I find it embarrassing that the author fails to do proper fact checking – such as giving C.Th. Dreyer a Swedish nationality, when he, in fact, was one of the greatest Danish directors of all time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_The...).
I may sound nitpicking, but when this book claims to be “a history” expect, at the very least, that the stated and verifiable facts are indeed correct.
It is quickly read, and it gives a brief access as to why humanity has been fascinated by this creature since, almost since the dawn of time.
However, brief as this book may be, it fails in providing new angles and add new material as to why the vampire continues to fascinate and repel us, as it has done for millennia.
On a side note, I find it embarrassing that the author fails to do proper fact checking – such as giving C.Th. Dreyer a Swedish nationality, when he, in fact, was one of the greatest Danish directors of all time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_The...).
I may sound nitpicking, but when this book claims to be “a history” expect, at the very least, that the stated and verifiable facts are indeed correct.
April 13, 2013
A cute little book (seriously, A+ plus for the design), but a little simple for my liking. That said, it is a "BITE-sized" history, so maybe I was expecting too much from it. Still, I'd have liked a bit more detail and analysis (particularly the sections on vampires on film and TV), and a bit less of what felt like the author meandering her way to the point. It is probably a good, quick introduction to vampires in history – but I felt like there were a few points that were missing. I felt as though the film of Interview with the Vampire was ignored, and the mention of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet in the blurb is the only time the Ancient Egyptian take on vampires is ever mentioned in the entire book.
September 8, 2017
Title: Vampires - a bite-sized history
Series: -
Author: Judith A. McLeod
Genre: Supernatural/ Educational
Rating: 3 stars
Well, if you want to know about all things vampires, this is definitely something you should read. It's basically a mini history book detailing when vampires were first mentioned in history, to how they have evolved over time, especially with the movie and book interpretations.
While not the most exciting read, it definitely has some interesting points, and is easily and intriguingly immersible by the design and layout of the book.
Series: -
Author: Judith A. McLeod
Genre: Supernatural/ Educational
Rating: 3 stars
Well, if you want to know about all things vampires, this is definitely something you should read. It's basically a mini history book detailing when vampires were first mentioned in history, to how they have evolved over time, especially with the movie and book interpretations.
While not the most exciting read, it definitely has some interesting points, and is easily and intriguingly immersible by the design and layout of the book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews