Book Giveaway For Vampire Tales (Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection)

Vampire Tales (Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection)

Release date: Sep 10, 2026

'The pang of the bite, the sudden spurting of blood, and the monstrous horror of the act.'

This collection, edited by Nick Groom, explores the extraord 'The pang of the bite, the sudden spurting of blood, and the monstrous horror of the act.'

This collection, edited by Nick Groom, explores the extraordinary variety and range of the vampire in English literature prior to the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897): it includes classical and mediaeval vampires, Islamic and Caribbean vampires, aristocratic and penurious vampires, abject vampires and dandified vampires, erudite vampires and bestial vampires, invisible vampires and psychic vampires, and, of course, she-vampires.

While Dracula remains the touchstone not only of the English literary vampire but of the international vampire phenomenon in the cinema, on television, on the stage, in comics, in video games, in music, and in fashion, readers may well be surprised to discover that there is an abundant tradition of vampire literature before Stoker's iconic novel. Moreover, these earlier vampires are often very different to those portrayed in Dracula: vampires were atypical beings-at least until the advent of the Count.

Although there are familiar names among the twenty-five pieces collected here such as Lord Byron, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ambrose Bierce, there are also many less familiar writers, and so neglected classics from the United States, Australia, and, in translation, France and Germany, are also included. These encompass major cultural movements from Romantic Hellenism to late-Victorian Decadence, as well as engaging in the most pressing socio-political issues of the times: colonial slavery, sexual identity, class oppression, and the very nature of the human. Nick Groom's introduction and notes accordingly explain how these diverse vampires were characterized a variety of traits, themes, and images that constituted a culture of vampirism. These include-but are not confined to-bloodsucking, together with a morbid preoccupation with blood, vitality, and predation; the exercise of power through possessing and dominating others; the prevalence of dreams and deliria that casts doubt over lived reality; the blurring of boundaries between life and death; and the enthralling intensity of beauty. Neither were such aspects of vampirism necessarily confined to the supernatural realm of the undead: they could also, for example, be understood as medical or psychological conditions. It is, then, the aim of Vampire Tales to reveal the extraordinary diversity of vampire literature in the nineteenth century.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. ...more

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Format: Print book

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Availability: 10 copies available, 3212 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Oct 01 - Oct 31, 2026

Countries available: U.S.

About Nick Groom

Nick Groom, known as the “Prof of Goth,” is professor of English at Exeter University, UK. His previous titles include The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction, and The Seasons: A Celebration of the English Year, which was shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award and came runner-up for BBC Countryfile Book of the Year.

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